Smallest Attendance You've Been Part Of

[RFCMod]

I remember the Northampton midweek game at Elm Park being pretty low
And midweek at Bournemouth many moons ago being a small away crowd

[Big Foot]

I was one of the few who made it to that Derby match 5 or so years ago, mainly due to living in Derby at the time.

Same - got there with 60 mins on the clock

Only 115-120 away fans there that day IIRC

[Geekins]

Sunderland away with Goater upfront, Pardew just left and Dillion's first game in charge. Lost 3-0 and Sat evening game. Think Omar Daley made his debut with his yellow boots as well. No noise, nothing to cheer about and Goater didn't move off his one spot upfront. Max 150-200 people but looked like 50.

[Regular John]

I remember the Northampton midweek game at Elm Park being pretty low
And midweek at Bournemouth many moons ago being a small away crowd

The lowest attendance for a match I attended was also a mid week league fixture against Northampton. It was a 1-1 draw back in March 1989 in which Reading scored in the first couple of minutes and then did nothing of note for the rest of the match. The official attendance was 3736.

[Kitsondinho]

I was one of the few who made it to that Derby match 5 or so years ago, mainly due to living in Derby at the time.

Same - got there with 60 mins on the clock

Only 115-120 away fans there that day IIRC

I was there too! I was one of the first in, due to only being up the road in Chesterfield! It was bloody freezing!! I had a whole row to myself and only became aware why later in the game.

[ayjaydee]

2.

Bought a car from Autotrader and coincided the collection of it with a reserve team cup semi final (. I believe) away at Gillingham. Was a midweek afternoon and the crowd could only have been around 150. Reading scored and myself and one other guy in the stand cheered.

[maffff]

2.

Bought a car from Autotrader and coincided the collection of it with a reserve team cup semi final (. I believe) away at Gillingham. Was a midweek afternoon and the crowd could only have been around 150. Reading scored and myself and one other guy in the stand cheered.

Paul Black?

[maffff]

In the Prem it'd be the rescheduled Sunderland game - 277 of us.

[Ark Royal]

There was a second game against Orient in the same trophy, I think we won 2-1 and there was a crowd of around 2,500.

I was away at Macclesfield in 1998 and there was a crowd of 2,900, probably my lowest for a league game.

Ah ha!

5th March 1991 Chester 1 Reading 0. Attendance 691. I was there and parked directly outside the away end. That's definitely the smallest attendance for a league game I've ever been to.

This one for me as well. I had driven up to Leeds earlier to do an installation, then drove to Macclesfield. Like ASS, I was able to park right outside the ground just before kick-off. Pissing down, lost 0-1 after being utter shite and I then I had to drive to a hotel in Preston. A singularly depressing experience.

[East Stand Ste]

Probably a Berks and Bucks cup game or maybe Fulham away in the Autoglass trophy

[Angry Shed Sex]

There was a second game against Orient in the same trophy, I think we won 2-1 and there was a crowd of around 2,500.

I was away at Macclesfield in 1998 and there was a crowd of 2,900, probably my lowest for a league game.

Ah ha!

5th March 1991 Chester 1 Reading 0. Attendance 691. I was there and parked directly outside the away end. That's definitely the smallest attendance for a league game I've ever been to.

This one for me as well. I had driven up to Leeds earlier to do an installation, then drove to Macclesfield. Like ASS, I was able to park right outside the ground just before kick-off. Pissing down, lost 0-1 after being utter shite and I then I had to drive to a hotel in Preston. A singularly depressing experience.

We probably chatted at some point!

Young nobbers take heed - we have some considerable way to go to be as bad as we were in the early 90's.

[bakerlou]

I had a similar one to Ayjaydee - me and a mate went to watch the reserves play at Highbury. The first team match was off so Porterfield played the first team. Arsenal reserves had Hillier, Dickov and Tony Adams who was playing his first match since leaving prison. He was marking Super Trev, who scored twice.

After the second one went in (2-1 up) the two of us were giving it "Easy" to an otherwise silent stadium.

Approx attendance - 5k, away support 2.

[Mr Angry]

August Bank Holiday Friday - 1989; away to Crewe.

I was able to juggle my diary to meet prospects and clients that coincided with Reading games at the time, so was able to get to this game on the evening of the August Bank Holiday.

Sadly, the supporter coaches got caught by the Bank Holiday traffic and gave up around Birmingham, turning round to go back to Reading, which left no more than 30 or so independently travelling Reading fans to witness a boring 1-1 draw of which I remember more about the state of the toilets in the open terrace away end (looked as if they had taken a direct hit from the Luftwaffe circa 1942 and hadn't been touched since) than the game itself.

[Aubery Boyce]

Went to Orient in the Early days of SJM. we were utter shite. Can't have been more than 100 away fans.

Sir John came into the away end to hear the opinions of the disgruntled few.

George Friel was palying/a sub. That's how bad we were....

[LWJ]

Boro away Dec 13 - probably about 90 away fans.............freezing cold.................lost 3-0. Not mnay more this season but at least it was warmer and we won.

Think we had a few more but yup there for both

[Forbury Lion]

Spin off - What was the lowest reported attendance at the Madejski Stadium for a Reading first team game?

I think that Orient game is our only attendance below 2,000 for a first team match at Madejski.

I think I was there, maybe I'm getting the Orient matches muddled up as we had them in the cup two seasons running, I actually put a 2,000 attendance until reading the HNA match report and it said 4,000+

[RFCMod]

Also remember a re-scheduled Plymouth FA Cup game on a cold Tuesday night in December which was a little sparse to say the least

[Barney]

Bit sad, but here are a few 'memories' from the first few seasons at the Madstad;

99/00 4615 Peterboro League Cup (4th lowest ever crowd)
99/00 5393 Bury League (lowest ever league gate, and 7th lowest ever crowd)
99/00 5918 Halifax FAC (9th lowest ever crowd, and lowest ever FA Cup crowd at home to league opposition)
99/00 1561 Orient Autowindscreens (lowest ever crowd)
00/01 4337 Orient League cup (lowest ever league cup crowd, and lowest ever first team crowd, and 3rd lowest ever crowd)
00/01 5643 Grays FAC (8th lowest ever crowd)
01/02 5115 Luton League cup (5th lowest ever crowd)
01/02 2725 Colchester LDV (second lowest ever crowd)
01/02 5338 Welling FAC (lowest ever FA Cup crowd and 6th lowest ever crowd)

and even sadder is that I went to all of these

[maffff]

One time Ian Royal tried using a 26" tv. The attendance looked tiny.

[From Despair To Where?]

Home

A 1-1 draw with Orient in the Associate Members Cup at Elm Park back in the late 80s. Couldn't remember the attendance but a quick check in Heaven & Earth tells me it was 1174.

Away.

A 1-0 midweek win at Shrewsbury in 1987. There was maybe 25 Reading fans in the bumper 2,300 crowd.