1985/86 and all that

[Terminal Boardom]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/oct/14/forgotten-story-reading-1985-86-season

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Great article, many thanks for sharing.

That was some team.

[melonhead]

wouldnt know, was supporting chelsea at the time

[windermere_royal]

Great read

[Ark Royal]

Excellent stuff. That 4-2 mullering of Chesterfield was one of my favourite Elm Park nights and the whole day at Newport was one to remember.

[windermere_royal]

and having 20.000 crammed in against Wolves and calling it 7,500 was worthy of a big LOL

[The Goat was fed]

Despite being born two years after this all happened, I went to every game.

[bloody Volvo driver]

Fantastic article and some great memories,

-Trev's winner at Brentford was one of the most celebrated, we'd been absolutely battered for 85 minutes.
- Had to run the whole way back to Cardiff Central after the game due to some incredibly unhappy locals.
- Lincoln away being escorted to the station after the game by Lincolnshire's finest who said along the lines of "if it wasn't for us, the locals would have u lot". Sure enough encountered a group of 20-30 likely lads on way back to the town with lots of knowing smiles from the OB. 2 Reading lads broke rank and charegd at the locals who would have given Usain a run for his money. At least the OB had the temerity to look ashamed.
- Made a lifelong friend as a result of our win at Doncaster. Went to University the next day and met up with a Donny fan who had been at the game and banged on for hours about how fortunate we had been. This life long fan now has access to a box at Hillsborough where I shall be in a couple of weeks.

Always keep an eye on teams starts and glad to see Orient mess up recently. Our record.

[Mid Sussex Royal]

Yeah some great memories from that run - shame there was a TV blackout at the time on ITV (they must have had football league rights that season) another annoying part of it was that Man U were going side by side on a similar run so we got very little press coverage.

Agree with previous post - Trev's last min goal at Brentford up our end was special; also remember the game at Donny and yes seem to remember we were outplayed for long periods before nicking a late goal.


looking back now I think there are similarities between that side and Brian's promotion side - both average sides that went on an incredible run - seem to remember our form tailed right off after xmas that season including a 6-0 defeat somewhere (Walsall?)

[AthleticoSpizz]

Twas Walsall

Twas there...even my ht pasty was frozen in the bloody middle

[Mid Sussex Royal]

I remember Norwich being interested in Trev but I never knew Benfica were after him

[Ian Royal]

Cheers, that's a great read. I doubt I even knew Reading had a team then, although I suppose it's excusable having been 4.

[King van der Kwaak]

Wonderful read, thank you.

That was the first year I really got into football, I was 7 when it happened. All the other kids at school supported Liverpool, Tottenham and so on, but I chose Reading as my argument was they were the most successful team as they kept winning! Shame that hasn't really panned out that well after 28 years....

I'm prouder of the 13 wins record than I am the 106 points. As someone said, it's "Our" record, and the 106 doesn't feel "ours".

Has anyone else still got the book the Chronicle released of Record Breaking Royals? I thought it was a fabulous book, really well written.

[Ian Herring]

Excellent stuff. That 4-2 mullering of Chesterfield was one of my favourite Elm Park nights and the whole day at Newport was one to remember.

This.

Trev in a blood-stained shirt. His gap-toothed grin and arms aloft. Bloody brilliant night at Elm Park.

[Mr Optimist]

I particularly remember Newport away as an impressionable 16 year old at the time. The different chants in the away end that day, travelling South Bank, Tilehurst boys we are here, Whitley, Southcote boys etc. Watching Mad Max's header loop into the corner of the net in front of us.

The drive back down the M4 with scarves out the windows.

[The Real Sandhurst Royal]

Bolton 1-0 at home.

Missed the kick off and the goal as I could not get in the the ground the queues for the South Bank were rather long.

Ended up watching the game in the Town End with the Bolton fans.

[Cripple Creek]

Great article. Brought back many very happy memories. There were so many in that team, Senior is clearly picked out in the article for the reason that he was such a prolific goalscorer, that were not particularly striking footballers in any way at all and somehow they gelled remarkably well. Jerry Williams was an awful centre forward and I loved it that he was made into a pretty good right back and then a winger. Great to see the name of Mark White mentioned as well, best left back ever played for the club in my opinion, or, well, certainly up there.
Just slightly off topic, am I the only one, but wasn't Stuart Beavon the first on the team sheet and, yet, he flattered to deceive?

[grey_squirrel]

I remember us all being gob smacked when Tricky Trev trotted onto the pitch at Lincoln. He had no chance of playing due to his injury, yet still pulled his boots on, played typically cr@p and scored! No way in a month of Sundays, any of our prima donna's would be @arsed to do that today.

Was one of about 100 Royals at our next league game, our first defeat, in the cold mist at our, then, bogey team, Bury. Lost 1-3. It was dismal. Undone by their wonder kid at the time, Craig Madden, IIRC.

[Handsome Man]

That was a fun article, and it gives a good impression of Trevor Senior - a goal-scoring machine who did little else - and had some very good verbs.

They really were very different times!

[soggy biscuit]

I was definitely among the 65,000 supporters on the Southbank for all of these 13 games, even the away ones that weren't there.