Hopeless football league teams blog (97-98 season)

[John Peel]

This brings back memories...

http://thetwounfortunates.blogspot.com/ ... ams-2.html

[Barry the bird boggler]

Yes, happy times!

A totally clueless managerial partnership where I even think Allan Harris struggled to know what his role was let alone the rest of us.

Even then we managed to get ourselves looking safe by the end of January only to hit a truly miserable run of crap performances and organisation that saw us dead by the time April came round. Stand out memory was the hopeless Oxford performance summed up by the awful Michael O'Neill walking into the flag on the midway line as he was substituted.

The other memory is JM looking a little ashen with the fans chanting "nice ground, no fans" after the Port Vale debacle.

[ZacNaloen]

Author got his decades mixed up a few times though

[Y21_Royal]

Decent enough article with a few inaccuracies but isn't it good to know that we no longer boot the ball wide from kick off for a wide man to head on...

[facaldaqui]

For me, the second half of that season was the worst ever time in my support of Reading (that season when we were low in the fourth division was technically worse, but there was something comical about it and a good atmosphere of gallows humour at the matches). The most depressing thing was that by the end of February (even though we were in mid table), it was apparent that playing like this we would go down. Nothing was done until too late--it was as if Bullivant and the players were unaware that they were not playing second division football. As a result, unlike all our other relegations, this one was not contested. We had nothing to shout for--we were down long before the end of the season and we went with a whimper. Burns's hasty signing spree was a massive lesson to Madejski: he will never do that again.

[peterroyal76]

Ah! The good ol' bad days!

[facaldaqui]

One thing that season taught me never to forget: at any moment, including this moment, we could implode and be flushed out of this league before you can say Jack Robinson. There's no such thing as being an established club at this level: it can happen to anyone--Sheffield United, for example ... Sheffield Wednesday ...pouff, gone.

[Mid Sussex Royal]

Decent enough article with a few inaccuracies but isn't it good to know that we no longer boot the ball wide from kick off for a wide man to head on...

I thought that kick off was from the Branfoot era with the ball hoofed out to Senior?

Agree this spell (Feb-April) was the worst I can remember - too many loan signings and strange selections and from memory most of the defeats were initially to the bottom sides so when we came to play Charlton, Boro and Forest at the end we were effectively down.

The annoying thing was there were probably a further 8 weak sides so relagation was avoidable.

[Compo's Hat]

I remember seeing myself on the back page of the Chronicle after the pitch protest following the 3-0 loss to Port Vale.

[Wokingham via Waterloo]

Aah. Happy memories, mainly of the Mercury Rev album, which is still gorgeous and one of my favourites. Unlike Brayson. Also when I first started going regularly to games. I quite enjoyed that sinking feeling. Proper football.

[The Real Sandhurst Royal]

For me, the second half of that season was the worst ever time in my support of Reading

We were 15th in the league nearing the end of February after beating Man City at home 3-0.... it went down hill from there rather quickly.

[Barry the bird boggler]

For me, the second half of that season was the worst ever time in my support of Reading

We were 15th in the league nearing the end of February after beating Man City at home 3-0.... it went down hill from there rather quickly.

As I recall Lee Hodges was crocked in that game and missed the rest of the season. One wonders if we may have survived if he'd remained fit .....