1946----2013

[Royal & Ancient]

It has been some journey but this old timer (coming up to 81) will not be renewing my S/T next season. My pension will be needed for life's essentials and after the Wigan disgrace ( and I'm sorry but that's what it was), I just don't have the incentive to pay to watch disinterested, overpaid players and a Manager patently out of his depth at this level.
I think we should have been reimbursed for that display!
Have many happy memories over the years.From early Elm Park days (the Wantage Road exit was open at half time so,as kids, you could nip in), lots of mud,leather,dubbin and Sloanes liniment. Meeting the players , Maurice Edelston, Dennis Allen, Jimmy Wheeler and others as, in those days Reading was a small market town. Seeing some of the greats, Tommy Lawton stands out for me, trying to forget standing on a table,singing, in the Spread. Going to the Matthews Cup final, all the 1966 games at Wembley. But now I have this feeling (as have others) of being let down badly. Lots of talk about the future from the top but unless a miracle happens (starting with Villa on Saturday- and dont underrate them!) relegation beckons. And we will be back to being a small club with limited ambition.
Rant over.
Good luck and best wishes to all Hob Nobbers

[melonhead]

bye then

[Wimb]

Sad when any fan decides to pack it in but even so....

[Silver Fox]

I think we should have been reimbursed for that display!

Will you be offering the club a bit of extra money for the good displays you've seen over the last 67 years?

Thought not

Laters

[maffff]

Where's the 1871----1945 thread?

[trueroyal1871]

It has been some journey but this old timer (coming up to 81) will not be renewing my S/T next season. My pension will be needed for life's essentials and after the Wigan disgrace ( and I'm sorry but that's what it was), I just don't have the incentive to pay to watch disinterested, overpaid players and a Manager patently out of his depth at this level.
I think we should have been reimbursed for that display!
Have many happy memories over the years.From early Elm Park days (the Wantage Road exit was open at half time so,as kids, you could nip in), lots of mud,leather,dubbin and Sloanes liniment. Meeting the players , Maurice Edelston, Dennis Allen, Jimmy Wheeler and others as, in those days Reading was a small market town. Seeing some of the greats, Tommy Lawton stands out for me, trying to forget standing on a table,singing, in the Spread. Going to the Matthews Cup final, all the 1966 games at Wembley. But now I have this feeling (as have others) of being let down badly. Lots of talk about the future from the top but unless a miracle happens (starting with Villa on Saturday- and dont underrate them!) relegation beckons. And we will be back to being a small club with limited ambition.
Rant over.
Good luck and best wishes to all Hob Nobbers

I totally agree with you about the Wigan game. If you're genuinely hard up and can't afford a ticket for next year I'll gladly go halves with anyone else on here who would be willing to help out an old supporter and buy you one.

[Royal & Ancient]

Thanks True Royal for the kind offer but I wont take this up. But that spirit is of the best and what supporting is about. No my message was about age- there being too many dispiriting things going on when you get to this age without adding to them.And the snide comments are why so many gave up HobNobbing when the site reorientated itself some years back.
Cheers to you all.

[3 veesinarow]

No snideness here, just a rallying cry.

So, putting up with 60 years of mediocrity didn't cost you more money than the last seven years? (and lets's be honest, it's been more up than down for the last 11, really). Why didn't you quit wasting money 30 years ago? Why has that one game against Wigan been any more of a waste of money than the hundreds of games of dross you must have seen over the years?

I've only put a shift in since 1967 and to be frank, the first 27 years of that weren't at all great. In contrast, the last 11 years have been a series of seasons the like of which we have never seen before. Yes, times are tough at the moment and we could well go down, yes, performances haven't been great, but keep the toys in the pram, find a little bit of that equity fund pot and keep on keeping on. We're not a God-given club, we're still trying to work out how to do this top-level thing properly. We're not Chelsea, crying at not winning the CL every season.

[Tommy Youlden's Ears]

Fickle plastic.

[BR2]

A few years behind the poster but for the first time ever have thought more than twice about renewing for next season.
Fortunately I am still working so the cost is less significant but the cost of petrol has meant matchday costing so much more.
We have had some fantastic times at RFC as well as many lows but I can concur that it is rotten standing by and watching a sinking ship for the second time in 5 years or so when you know that the club could afford to do something about it.

This hasn't been the case for so many years of the club's existence when we couldn't afford to buy nor afford to keep decent players.
It does feel (rightly or wrongly)that the club has thrown away something very precious for the second time in such a short period and the thought of playing once again so soon in the Championship isn't that compelling.
Yes,I know that many on here see us as a yo-yo club and look at West Brom etc but perhaps they ought to look at Leicester,Leeds,Sheff Wednesday,Forest,Ipswich etc.,all bigger clubs (with many years playing at the top level) than ours who have found it very difficult to get back to the top level again.

The younger ones on here have time on their side and their starting point is in and around the top of the Championship so they will probably not even consider stopping their support-why should they?
We oldies however started off with Div 3 South football and with our little club spending most of it's time at the lower levels so even Branfoot's promotion was pretty good and Coppell's and Brian's even better.
The trouble is that having got to this level at long last we kinda like it and want to see the best teams week-in,week-out even if there is quite a cost to pay.

The irony is that the poster and anyone else who feels like this might well be called plastics whereas in fact without our support over the years (remember the coin collections at Elm Park?) the younger ones might not even have had Reading FC as a football league club.
Personally I'm not ready to call it a day but I can fully empathise with the poster especially after that abysmal display against Wigan when we oldies were even closer to death than we are with the risk of hypothermia ,something that the players looked as though they were suffering from after their jolly in Dubai.

[BR2]

bye then

melon,
Why not "Bye then and thanks for doing your bit towards financing the club that I am happy to support"?
In other words,thanks for the legacy.

[Ian Royal]

Sorry you feel that way and won't be renewing. I think you're being a bit harsh about how much effort is being put in and about what relegation means for us, but you've done your time and earned your right to view. I'm glad you got to have the long old trudge through lower league crapness rewarded with the club reaching the promised land and giving a damn good showing at least once before you gave up.

I hope you'll keep following our results and we'll give you a few more smiles yet.

[andrew1957]

It has been some journey but this old timer (coming up to 81) will not be renewing my S/T next season. My pension will be needed for life's essentials and after the Wigan disgrace ( and I'm sorry but that's what it was), I just don't have the incentive to pay to watch disinterested, overpaid players and a Manager patently out of his depth at this level.
I think we should have been reimbursed for that display!
Have many happy memories over the years.From early Elm Park days (the Wantage Road exit was open at half time so,as kids, you could nip in), lots of mud,leather,dubbin and Sloanes liniment. Meeting the players , Maurice Edelston, Dennis Allen, Jimmy Wheeler and others as, in those days Reading was a small market town. Seeing some of the greats, Tommy Lawton stands out for me, trying to forget standing on a table,singing, in the Spread. Going to the Matthews Cup final, all the 1966 games at Wembley. But now I have this feeling (as have others) of being let down badly. Lots of talk about the future from the top but unless a miracle happens (starting with Villa on Saturday- and dont underrate them!) relegation beckons. And we will be back to being a small club with limited ambition.
Rant over.
Good luck and best wishes to all Hob Nobbers

The home defeats to Barnsley and Watford at the start of last season were infinitely more embarrassing and disappointing IMO. Wigan are a proven PL team in recent seasons and had a good day against us. We have to accept that the standard in the PL is just simply much higher than in the Championship.

[Bowman's Quiver]

It has been some journey but this old timer (coming up to 81) will not be renewing my S/T next season. My pension will be needed for life's essentials and after the Wigan disgrace ( and I'm sorry but that's what it was), I just don't have the incentive to pay to watch disinterested, overpaid players and a Manager patently out of his depth at this level.
I think we should have been reimbursed for that display!
Have many happy memories over the years.From early Elm Park days (the Wantage Road exit was open at half time so,as kids, you could nip in), lots of mud,leather,dubbin and Sloanes liniment. Meeting the players , Maurice Edelston, Dennis Allen, Jimmy Wheeler and others as, in those days Reading was a small market town. Seeing some of the greats, Tommy Lawton stands out for me, trying to forget standing on a table,singing, in the Spread. Going to the Matthews Cup final, all the 1966 games at Wembley. But now I have this feeling (as have others) of being let down badly. Lots of talk about the future from the top but unless a miracle happens (starting with Villa on Saturday- and dont underrate them!) relegation beckons. And we will be back to being a small club with limited ambition.
Rant over.
Good luck and best wishes to all Hob Nobbers

81 years old or not, grow-up!

[Rex]

Are you actually henpecked . Mr Quiver.

[Ouroboros]

Really surprised that nobody recalls that this poster has previous with throwing the toys out of the pram when things aren't going well. This is from 11 Sept 2011, after a 2-0 home defeat by Watford:

Well thank you R.F.C. for ruining our week. Our Golden Wedding anniversary, superb meal out with loads of friends, big home party with even more and then we go on Saturday to one of the worst games that I can remember in all my 60 + years of supporting this Club. And certainly this is my last as I, as well as the Chairman, can no longer afford to support such dross. My shirt will now be used to clean the car and whether I use my S/T again is open to doubt.Angry - you bet I am.
And, I know that some of you will defend him, but if you get such a negative outlook from SJM (I refuse to recognise the 'gongs' ) then this spreads right through the whole Club and now the supporters! Just thank goodness we did not use the expensive hospitality suite.
So if they go down a Division and more in the future as they deserve then I won't be there.
Goodbye!!!!

So how did that work out, R&A? An unexpected title-winning season got you onside for another year, did it?

But apparently the only thing worthy of your money is constant success, so you'll be off now until we're good again.

44 posts and you've already flounced off twice - that must be a record.

Looking forward to seeing you annouce another acrimonious departure some time in 2015.

[maffff]

IN for the biannual Royal & Ancient leaving party 2015.

[floyd__streete]

Loving the idea of a resignation letter on Hob Nob

[LoyalRoyalFan]

after the Wigan disgrace ( and I'm sorry but that's what it was)

I hate to sound so patronising, but it was hardly a 'disgrace'.

We lost a Premier League game, over a decade ago we were losing games in League One. As I'm sure you are aware as a supporter of many years, the club has come on leaps and bounds from the days of minuscule crowds at Elm Park watching dire football.

A few seasons ago we were roundly smashed 4-1 at Plymouth, that was a near enough disgrace - heading towards League One with a squad good enough to be challenging for promotion.

We lost a game in the toughest league in the world, not a big deal is it?

[Jackson Corner]

Thats a lot of years od support. Having been around that long you would have been there when we went down 3-2 to Preston at Elm Park in front of 1,710 to go bottom of the third division and be relegated. And whilst the Wigan geme was horrible campared to back then these are still great times for Reading FC. In the next few weeks we will be playing at Old Trafford and the Emirates. The club has come along away since you got in for free at half time in 1946. Never forget that.