On this day

[Sutekh]

Today would have been the 80th birthday of the late Ian Porterfield (RIP), who, incidentally, was also the very first Premier League manager to get the sack (from Chelsea in 1993).

Additionally Reading beat Coventry 2-0 on this date 13 years ago as they started to move in on the Championship title.

Team : Federici, Harte, Connolly, Gorkss, Pearce, J Mills, Leigertwood, Kebe, Karacan, N Hunt, Roberts
Subs : Andersen, Le Fondre, Tabb, Cywka, Church

Ref : David Coote

[Brogue]

Peado

[morganb]

Peado

Just for clarification - David Coote (not Ian Porterfield or Sutekh)

[Brogue]

Peado

Just for clarification - David Coote (not Ian Porterfield or Sutekh)

Yes

[From Despair To Where?]

My over-riding memory of Porterfield's tenure was a turgid 1-0 home defeat against Bolton that pushed me to the brink of giving up


The second half of the season was the worst I've ever seen and that includes the last 5 years.

P23 W6 D4 L13 F18 A 35 PTS 22


Last 20 W4 D4 L12 F13 A 32 PTS 16

We were 11-5-8 F36 A36 for the first half of the season which saved us although we were knocked out of the cup by non league Colchester and lost 3-1 in our last ever competitive fixture with Aldershot in the Daffy Duck Cup.

[SouthDownsRoyal]

My over-riding memory of Porterfield's tenure was a turgid 1-0 home defeat against Bolton that pushed me to the brink of giving up


The second half of the season was the worst I've ever seen and that includes the last 5 years.

P23 W6 D4 L13 F18 A 35 PTS 22


Last 20 W4 D4 L12 F13 A 32 PTS 16

Good memory

[From Despair To Where?]

Obviously I had to look up the results to get the exact stats but but I just remember it being a slow, laborious death of toothless attacking and porous defending. The team really reflected the absolutely shit state the club was in.


The saving grace was that Madejski bought us in the April, saving us from oblivion really, binned off Porterfield and McGhee won his first fixture as our manager on the last day of the season.

The rest is history, although McGhee's (and Madejski's) first full season in charge didn't really hint of what was to come either. A lesson for today methinks.

[South Coast Royal]

Obviously I had to look up the results to get the exact stats but but I just remember it being a slow, laborious death of toothless attacking and porous defending. The team really reflected the absolutely shit state the club was in.


The saving grace was that Madejski bought us in the April, saving us from oblivion really, binned off Porterfield and McGhee won his first fixture as our manager on the last day of the season.

The rest is history.

Yes, McGhee as player/manager was a bit of a left field appointment and he laid the foundations for our eventual promotion to the Premier League-he showed us that the impossibly could actually happen.
He even achieved the impossible in teaching Stevie Richardson how to pass a ball.

It is a bit of a surprise to many of us that he didn't succeed elsewhere

[From Despair To Where?]

It's partly why I was never that doom laiden by the last knockings of Dai's tenure because I remember what happened in 1991, and unlike then, there was a sense of defiance rather than fatalism.

[Mid Sussex Royal]

Obviously I had to look up the results to get the exact stats but but I just remember it being a slow, laborious death of toothless attacking and porous defending. The team really reflected the absolutely shit state the club was in.


The saving grace was that Madejski bought us in the April, saving us from oblivion really, binned off Porterfield and McGhee won his first fixture as our manager on the last day of the season.

The rest is history, although McGhee's (and Madejski's) first full season in charge didn't really hint of what was to come either. A lesson for today methinks.

Did Porterfield have a drink problem at the end? Pretty sure something came to light indicating that.

He was hired on a big contract and we also bought Craig Maskell during his time which nearly killed the club.