grafikhaus
Kraft durch Freude
Can't say I've been looking forward to this - I've never been to Elm Park or the Madejski, but it's actually quite interesting...
Despite being founded in 1871, The Royals did not join the Football League until 1920. They played at Elm Park for 102 years – from 1896 until 1998 when, as a result of The Taylor Report, they moved to the new, purpose-built Madejski Stadium.
Despite the long histories of both clubs, our first meeting only came on 13th October, 1979 when a Third Division fixture at Bramall Lane saw the Blades win 2-0. Since then, we have met a total of 36 times in the League, twice in the FA Cup and once in the League Cup.
In recent times, we’ve had some Titanic clashes with Reading, starting with the 2002-03 ‘Triple Assault’ season under Neil Warnock. From losing at home to The Royals on the 18th February, 2003…
…they had the ‘Indian Sign’ over us. This bleak period for the Blades lasted until 15th November 2008. In this time, we played Reading eleven times (ten in the League and once in the League Cup) without the Blades winning once (nine defeats, two draws). Here are the goals from that 0-2 home defeat on 15th November 2008:
A large part of the reason for this was that Reading had some very good players around this time, including Marcus Hahnemann in goal, James Harper, Nickey Shorey, Luke Chadwick, Steve Sidwell, Nickey Forster, Stephen Hunt, Kevin Doyle, Dave Kitson and Leroy Lita. True, the Blades had some very good players as well, but Reading always seemed to have that bit of extra quality.
In the 2005-06 season Reading were champions of The Championship and The Blades joined them in getting promoted to The Premier League by finishing in second place, although 16 points behind as Reading gained a total of 106 points - the record for the number of points gained in a professional league season. Here’s the action from our 1-2 defeat at Reading on 1st October 2005 after ‘our best start ever’ – our scorer? Steve Kabba:
Later that season (on 14th February 2006) it was ‘first v. second’ in front of over 25k on a Tuesday evening at Bramall Lane.
In the 2006-07 season, this was Reading’s first-ever season in the top flight and they finished a creditable eighth, while the Blades were relegated.
Of note in this season was the fixture at Reading on 20th January 2007. The Blades lost 1-3 with our goal coming from Christian Nade, but a touchline clash between manager Neil Warnock and Reading coach and ex-Blade Wally Downes led to both men being sent to the stands.
Reading also hold the record for the number of successive league wins at the start of a season, with a total of 13 wins at the start of the 1985–86 Third Division campaign.
The last time we met was in the FA Cup on 26th January 2013 at Reading when the Blades lost 4-0.
The last time we met in the League was in the League was April 25th 2011. The Blades were on the brink of relegation to the third tier but surprisingly won away 3-2 after being two goals behind: (see next post - only five bits of media allowed)
In the 2012-13 season, Reading were again in the Premier League but only lasted one season.
That’s it. We’ve met Reading a total of 36 times in the League, twice in the FA Cup and once in the League Cup.
League:
Home: P:18 W:7 D:6 L: 5 F:28 A:18
Away: P:18 W:7 D:1 L:10 F:21 A:22
Next up? Memries of L***s. PM with owt you think should be included. The ones that stand out for me are the Bank Holiday 0-4 at Helland Road and the 2-1 League Cup game in 2002.