25 years ago today.....

[NathStPaul]

'Magnificent' 'Seven'



Yeah, last game of season and Fleck gets presented with Norwich's player of the season. Gr8 one.

Worlds worst boyband.

[Dirk Gently]

Didn't we have a massive injury crisis that year, with at least a whole team injured? That was one of my favourite ever seasons, despite the relegation.

Strange how history repeats itself - we were looking good for a lot of the season - in the first week of January we were sitting comfortably mid-table and still in both cups (and in the quarter-final of the League Cup, having beaten top of the First Division Leeds at Elland Road in the previous round.

Then George Cain ("the butcher of Bootle") gave a crap decision late in that League Cup game and the whole season seemed to disintegrate.

A whole series of injuries (especially to 'keepers) and after the end of Jan we only won two more matches (against the two teams relegated with us, Stoke & Man City) and lost 15. Our last 17 league games were:

P: 17, W: 2, D: 0, L: 15, F: 9, A: 36 GD: -25, Pts : 6.

It was the season of the disastrous Nick Colgan, the "magnificent seven", Terry the Taxi blaming "internet subversives" for the demo at Poxford - and saying goodbye to Elm Park with a pathetic whimper.

Wow - that tail off in form is even worse than I remember and even worse than this season.

5 of those goals scored were in the 2 wins V Man City and Stoke 3-0 & 2-0....

Nick Colgan, debuted at Crewe. Dropped a massive clanger after 10 minutes I think (dithering about trying to decide what to do then finally hitting his “clearance” straight to a Crewe player), think his next game was the aforementioned disgrace at Stockport - so that was his confidence shot for the rest of his Reading career before he’d really even started. Loaned from Chelsea, made 5 apps in total. His career wound up at Hibs and then Barnsley and got 9 Ireland caps. He’s now 49 and the goalkeeping coach at, oddly, Stockport.

Incidentally after retiring from the league list in 2004, George Cain became a qualified physiotherapist and was working as such for Tranmere 10 years ago.

Yep - for me Colgan sums up that second half of the season, and I remember that Crewe game well. I think his first mistake was right at the start, when he picked up the ball after it came to him from a Reading throw-in and gave away an indirect free-kick (the law had changed a few weeks earlier to prevent this). Then the goal was as you say, he dithered with the ball and was closed down so that the Crewe player was about a foot away from him when Colgan's clearance cannoned straight off him into the net.

Colgan played five games for us. We lost them all, scored one and conceded 16.

That was year of five 'keepers - Mautone, Hammond, Bibbo, Howie and Colgan.

[Sutekh]

Believe this is the list of ALL of Tommy Burns' signings from his arrival in March 98 to him getting the heave ho in Sep 99, think I've got them all but as he brought in over two teams' worth of players there might be someone missing!

1. Jim McIntyre
2. Robert Fleck
3. Paddy Kelly (loan)
4. Scott Howie
5. Jimmy Crawford
6. Stuart Gray
7. Paul Brayson
8. Graeme Murty
9. Mass Sarr
10. Mark Reilly
11. Chris Casper
12. Andy Wright (loan)
13. Mark McKeever (loan)
14. John Polston
15. Peter van der Kwaak
16. Elroy Kromheer
17. Grant Brebner
18. Neil Clement (loan)
19. Andy Gurney
20. Tony Barras
21. Tony Thorpe (loan)
22. Sean Evers
23. Keith Scott
24. Alan Maybury (loan)
25. Andy McLaren
26. Nicky Forster
27. Peter Grant
28. Neil Smith

While there's a lot of dross there, there are some real decent buys. Anyway enjoy the memories these players names bring back! Oddly, from what I can make out, despite the number of acquisitions half the Reading team of his last few games in charge was made up of players who were at the club before he was (e.g. Williams, Hunter, Bernal, Hodges)!

[South Coast Royal]

Believe this is the list of ALL of Tommy Burns' signings from his arrival in March 98 to him getting the heave ho in Sep 99, think I've got them all but as he brought in over two teams' worth of players there might be someone missing!

1. Jim McIntyre
2. Robert Fleck
3. Paddy Kelly (loan)
4. Scott Howie
5. Jimmy Crawford
6. Stuart Gray
7. Paul Brayson
8. Graeme Murty
9. Mass Sarr
10. Mark Reilly
11. Chris Casper
12. Andy Wright (loan)
13. Mark McKeever (loan)
14. John Polston
15. Peter van der Kwaak
16. Elroy Kromheer
17. Grant Brebner
18. Neil Clement (loan)
19. Andy Gurney
20. Tony Barras
21. Tony Thorpe (loan)
22. Sean Evers
23. Keith Scott
24. Alan Maybury (loan)
25. Andy McLaren
26. Nicky Forster
27. Peter Grant
28. Neil Smith

While there's a lot of dross there, there are some real decent buys. Anyway enjoy the memories these players names bring back! Oddly, from what I can make out, despite the number of acquisitions half the Reading team of his last few games in charge was made up of players who were at the club before he was (e.g. Williams, Hunter, Bernal, Hodges)!

Murty, Brebner and Forster were IMHO the best of those.
I thought Paddy Kelly was the best prospect of the lot but we couldn't get him permanently and he just faded away.

[South Coast Royal]

Didn't we have a massive injury crisis that year, with at least a whole team injured? That was one of my favourite ever seasons, despite the relegation.

Strange how history repeats itself - we were looking good for a lot of the season - in the first week of January we were sitting comfortably mid-table and still in both cups (and in the quarter-final of the League Cup, having beaten top of the First Division Leeds at Elland Road in the previous round.

Then George Cain ("the butcher of Bootle") gave a crap decision late in that League Cup game and the whole season seemed to disintegrate.

A whole series of injuries (especially to 'keepers) and after the end of Jan we only won two more matches (against the two teams relegated with us, Stoke & Man City) and lost 15. Our last 17 league games were:

P: 17, W: 2, D: 0, L: 15, F: 9, A: 36 GD: -25, Pts : 6.

It was the season of the disastrous Nick Colgan, the "magnificent seven", Terry the Taxi blaming "internet subversives" for the demo at Poxford - and saying goodbye to Elm Park with a pathetic whimper.

Brought in one time Barcelona assistant to Terry Venables, Alan Harris, after the dreadful start to the season (1 point from 6 games) and though results did improve it seemed by the new year the management didn’t really know what they were doing or who was meant to be taking responsibility for what. Season really ended with the loss of Lee Hodges to injury in the win over City. Other than that it was just a catalogue of utter cr@p from February onwards covering class results that even the current shambles may have trouble matching like losing 5-1 to Stockport in fron of 38 or so away fans on a Tuesday night.

Tommy came in, eventually, JM had wanted him in the previous summer but he had elected to stay and see what happened to his career at Newcastle (not a lot as it happens) so we ended up with a coach rather than a manager late in that close season which hardly helped things but then that was JM! If only he hadn’t have dumped off Q&G, I think the club would have survived and been better positioned for the new stadium.

Anyway Tommy said all the right things and also, I believe, instigated the fan’s forums - seem to remember him with a mike talking to the south bank one evening about the situation at the club and telling everyone what he hoped to be able to do to get the team to survive. Certainly in his games at the end of the season the club looked better but that wasn’t saying much given the appalling turdness of what had gone immediately before (culminating in what is still possibly the most shockingly awful Reading display ever as the club lost 3-0 at the Manor on a Tuesday evening and prompted a sit down protest in front of the team coach afterwards. Not sure if that was the final game of the taxi’s reign or whether it was the 3-0 stuffing by Port Vale at home when fans invaded the pitch afterwards and upset JM by singing “nice ground, no fans” and “Bullivant out”. JM took to the mike and stated he would not be bowed by mob pressure - those were the days, wonder if we could get Dai to do the same thing at some point ).

Burns was very approachable and I had 3 direct telephone conversations with him about the players and the club.
Despite the magnificent seven he surprisingly felt that he wasn't fully backed in the transfer market and the one player he was desperate to sign was Dougie Freedman from Palace.

Why did he think he needed a goalscorer like Freedman when we had Paul Brayson?

[Dirk Gently]

Why did he think he needed a goalscorer like Freedman when we had Paul Brayson?

Ah, yes - the striker who scored fewer goals the following season than Swindon Town's reserve goalkeeper.

[stealthpapes]

I've seen A Fedz score more goals than some of our strikers.

Sean Evers

LOL

His time with the club was unproductive.

[From Despair To Where?]

Aparently Berndt Schuster applied for the job when Bullivant was appointed.

Not suggesting we missed a trick but 10 years later Bullivant was assistant manager at League 2 Brentford and Schuster was winning La Liga with Real Madrid.

[6ft Kerplunk]

A whole series of injuries (especially to 'keepers) and after the end of Jan we only won two more matches (against the two teams relegated with us, Stoke & Man City) and lost 15.

After we beat City in late Feb I said to my work colleague that if we won 2 out of the next 5 or 6 we'd probably be ok and pull away. We only won once again the whole season. He reminds me of it every Feb if we're mid table or below.
Bullivant should have been sacked after the 6-0 defeat away at Tranmere. That was my last match before I moved up north and I only went last minute as someone pulled out so there was a spare ticket floating around. One of the worst performances I've ever seen and was obvious at that point that Bullivant was out of his depth as a manager.

[tmesis]

Aparently Berndt Schuster applied for the job when Bullivant was appointed.

Not suggesting we missed a trick but 10 years later Bullivant was assistant manager at League 2 Brentford and Schuster was winning La Liga with Real Madrid.

Apparently his plans involved signing a couple of Brazilian players to raise the profile of the club, which sadly were a non-starter due to our work permit rules.

[From Despair To Where?]

Aparently Berndt Schuster applied for the job when Bullivant was appointed.

Not suggesting we missed a trick but 10 years later Bullivant was assistant manager at League 2 Brentford and Schuster was winning La Liga with Real Madrid.

Apparently his plans involved signing a couple of Brazilian players to raise the profile of the club, which sadly were a non-starter due to our work permit rules.

Let me guess? Ronaldinho and Kaka?

[fred sharpes nose]

7 promotions and 8 relegations (1 tbc on Saturday) in 103 years of league football - something interesting happens every approx 7 years

prmotion in 2030 it is !

[/quote]

[Vision]

Was the last time Reading were relegated from the second tier, having lost away to champions elect Nottingham Forest to a late Chris Bart Williams goal. A few mins earlier, Paul Brayson, one of several duff signings by Burns, missed a simple chance one on one to put us ahead. Archie, no longer in favour, would have buried it.

I often wonder if Burns had worked with the existing under performing players, instead of revamping just about the whole side in a week, would have fared better? As it turned out, most of his signings weren't even tier three level the following season.

We came back from that and less than 10 years later were the side our peers talked about as an example of a well run successful club built piece by piece.

Football is cyclical with ups and downs over the years for all (bar the big 6).

If we go down, we will be back.

I remember that absolute prick Robert Fleck dancing on tables in the Purple Turtle as if we'd won the league rather than just got relegated.

[leon]

Was the last time Reading were relegated from the second tier, having lost away to champions elect Nottingham Forest to a late Chris Bart Williams goal. A few mins earlier, Paul Brayson, one of several duff signings by Burns, missed a simple chance one on one to put us ahead. Archie, no longer in favour, would have buried it.

I often wonder if Burns had worked with the existing under performing players, instead of revamping just about the whole side in a week, would have fared better? As it turned out, most of his signings weren't even tier three level the following season.

We came back from that and less than 10 years later were the side our peers talked about as an example of a well run successful club built piece by piece.

Football is cyclical with ups and downs over the years for all (bar the big 6).

If we go down, we will be back.

I remember that absolute prick Robert Fleck dancing on tables in the Purple Turtle as if we'd won the league rather than just got relegated.

Christ really?

[Vision]

Was the last time Reading were relegated from the second tier, having lost away to champions elect Nottingham Forest to a late Chris Bart Williams goal. A few mins earlier, Paul Brayson, one of several duff signings by Burns, missed a simple chance one on one to put us ahead. Archie, no longer in favour, would have buried it.

I often wonder if Burns had worked with the existing under performing players, instead of revamping just about the whole side in a week, would have fared better? As it turned out, most of his signings weren't even tier three level the following season.

We came back from that and less than 10 years later were the side our peers talked about as an example of a well run successful club built piece by piece.

Football is cyclical with ups and downs over the years for all (bar the big 6).

If we go down, we will be back.

I remember that absolute prick Robert Fleck dancing on tables in the Purple Turtle as if we'd won the league rather than just got relegated.

Christ really?

Yep. Even James Lambert looked embarrassed by it. Before he joined in shortly after.

I despise Fleck more than any other signing we ever made. Only the people who got money from the Shooters fruit machines were sorry when he finally oxf*rd off.

[Sutekh]

I remember that absolute prick Robert Fleck dancing on tables in the Purple Turtle as if we'd won the league rather than just got relegated.

Christ really?

Yep. Even James Lambert looked embarrassed by it. Before he joined in shortly after.

I despise Fleck more than any other signing we ever made. Only the people who got money from the Shooters fruit machines were sorry when he finally oxf*rd off.

Yeah, he wasn’t much good (so about standard for most of Tommy’s signings) £60k wasn’t it for 9 appearances and 1 goal before injury finished him? His cousin, John, plays for Sheffield United while I think Robert is a teacher now.

[From Despair To Where?]

7 promotions and 8 relegations (1 tbc on Saturday) in 103 years of league football - something interesting happens every approx 7 years

prmotion in 2030 it is !

[/quote]

Years ending in 3 and 8 tend to be worse

Years ending in 5 and 6 tend to be better.

[Sutekh]

7 promotions and 8 relegations (1 tbc on Saturday) in 103 years of league football - something interesting happens every approx 7 years

prmotion in 2030 it is !

Years ending in 3 and 8 tend to be worse

Years ending in 5 and 6 tend to be better.

Good, just 2/3 years to wait then!