Worst three matches watched

[PEARCEY]

I'm fed up with all this positivity.Time for some misery.
What are the worst three Reading matches you have ever seen?
Aside from the 6-0 defeat at Walsall in 1986 I have chosen the following.
Reading 0 Hull City 0 in 1988 meaning we were relegated back to the old div3 on a day when Moran and Whitehurst just couldn't score(no surprises there then). Some wag in the crowd spread a rumour that one of our relegation rivals was losing.....telling porkies he was.
Oxford 3 Reading 0 in late 83 I think....when it peed with rain in the uncovered away end on a night of misery.
Leyton Orient 0 Reading 0 in 1985 We had about 18 league games still left to play in Mid March and this game was a stinker...I cannot remember anything of note from that day.
.

[Forbury Lion]

Reading 0-0 Peterbrough, cold midweek game.... what a bore.

READING 0 PETERBOROUGH 0 Attendance: 4,615
Scorers: Nope Date: 11 August 1999
Team: Howie, Gray, Polston, Hunter, Gurney, McLaren, Caskey, Brebner, Hodges, Williams, Scott.
Subs: Bernal (for McLaren), Casper, McIntyre (for Hodges), Crawford (for Caskey) V.D. Kwaak
Audio: Nope / Not yet Match Hero: No, I don't think so

http://www.royals.org/matdoc/110899.html


I'm sorry, but no other games come anywhere close to the levels of boredom I experienced on that night so to pick 2 more is impossible.

[Beelzebub]

Cardiff away one year. Can't even remember the score, but it was so cold that the Police made us go into the covered stand with the Cardiff fans for fear of us dieing of exposure!

Port Vale at home 1982- lowest league home crowd for Reading ever, and I was there! lost 2-3!
Got a program in the roof I believe- to be honest I can hardly remember the game itself, it was almost Immaterial !

Last is a run of games rather than one in particular, but in the early 80's I seem to remember Reading set a record for the most amount of 0-0 draws on the trot, and we would spend the whole game chanting "all we are saying is give us a goal" to the tune of Give peace a chance.

[Ian Royal]

1)Reading 0-3 Wimbledon @ Mad stad boxing day circa 2004ish? - stuffed by children who weren't any good

2)Reading 0-1 Port Vale @ Elm Park circa 97ish? - can't remember much apart from it being dire.

3)Virtually anything under Burns regardless of result - THAT Bristol Rovers game will do if you want to be specific, but there were much worse I've happily forgotten the details of.

[From Despair To Where?]

Port Vale at home 1892- lowest league home crowd for Reading ever, and I was there! lost 2-3!
Got a program in the roof I believe- to be honest I can hardly remember the game itself, it was almost Immaterial !

oxf*rd hell, you've been supporting Readng for 116 years!!!.

Such a forgettable game, you can't remember who we were playing.

I remember a particularly dire 0-0 against Chesterfield. Must have been about 1988 because Gary Phillips was in goal and was responsible for the highlight of the game, fumbling a back pass for a corner.

[wolsey]

Reading 0 Wimbledon 3 - as already mentioned, at the time reason in itself never to watch another Reading game.

The seemingly interminable games against Walsall cup, league and cup replay around 2001/02.

Swansea away this this season was something (not) to behold.

Note nothing from Elm Park years - was it just because we had come to expect nothing of any real quality, or (more likely) are my glasses being misted up by nostalgia?

[Chaney]

Pants day Reading 1 Scunthorpe 1,

[Ian Royal]

Reading 0 Wimbledon 3 - as already mentioned, at the time reason in itself never to watch another Reading game.

The seemingly interminable games against Walsall cup, league and cup replay around 2001/02.

Swansea away this this season was something (not) to behold.

Note nothing from Elm Park years - was it just because we had come to expect nothing of any real quality, or (more likely) are my glasses being misted up by nostalgia?

IMO standing in the terraces, inparticular the South Bank made it easier to have fun even if it was a shocking game. Easy to be with friends, easier to chat, easier to start and join in with spontaneous and humourous chants. Plus you could jump up and down a bit to releave the boredom if nothing else worked.

[i_kingsley]

Reading away at hartlepool 0-0 early 1990's i think it was so boreing that we were praying for anyone to score or at least kick the ball to one of there own team.

chesterfield 7 - 1 Reading we scored the first goal then lost in terrible weather conditions, i remember steve death kicking the ball up field only for the wind to blow it back at him. also had the next week off school with the flu

[Squelchy2507]

Rochdale 4 Reading 1 in 1983 - absolutely woeful performance and completely spanked by oxf*rd Rochdale.

Reading 1 Palace 6 in 1996 - I have a lot of mates who support Palace and it took months for me to live that one down.

Pompey 7 Reading 4 this season - Don't be fooled by us scoring 4 away from home - we were total shit and Pompey could have had 15 that day.

[biscuitsrus]

For me the absolute worse game was against Grimsby in FA Cup at EP, somebody may help me with the details but all I can remember were those bloody haddocks being lifted in the air as Grimsby triumphed. I did not go to EP for the rest of the season, I just could could not shake the memory.

[earleyroyal]

As I said on the 'best matches watched' thread I've only had a season ticket since 2003 when I was 11 so I've been lucky, but there are still some matches which stand out.

In terms of boredom, Watford away last year was appalling - not one chance in the whole game, two teams punting the ball high into the air for 90 minutes with no attempt at an end product. Like watching a park game. 'More life in the graveyard near the stadium' someone said which summed it up perfectly, some people said it was worse that day than watching Reading in Division 4 as they would at least try and direct the ball towards the goal, even if they were shit at doing it generally.

Getting stuffed 3-0 at home by Wimbledon who were about 4000 points adrift and with an average team age of 12.

Several of the matches towards the end of 2004/05 were 0-0s with absolutely nothing to recommend them - QPR away, Leicester/Plymouth at home (the latter match featuring an Elvis impersonator before the match as the highlight )

The Bolton game at home this year and Chelsea last year were depressing, because of those two teams' willingness to use every tactic in the book to stop anything resembling a game of football developing. Portsmouth last year because of our inability to complete even the most basic pass, I watched about 5+ matches a season from 99-02 of which some were probably worse but I don't remember much about them. I do remember being taken to the Leicester home game in the 02-03 season as a present for passing a school entrance exam, and Leicester being 3-0 up in about 20 minutes!

Apart from that I've been very lucky to grow up at the best time in RFC's history.

[savage 4 england]

Pompey 7 Reading 4 this season - Don't be fooled by us scoring 4 away from home - we were total shit and Pompey could have had 15 that day.

A bad performance, but certainly not the worst match watched.

[joe999]

Totally agree with forbury lion for number 1, peterborough was TERRIBLE. Its still a running joke between me and my dad today

I also thought of pants day, but that was made so much better by the fact Sean Evers cried and had to be subbed

My 2 others would possibly be since our time in the premiership. Simply because they were 2 games i expected we would win, but here are some candidates

Watord away, December 9th 2006 dire game, long ball from both teams, NOTHING happened

West Ham home, September 1st 2007, some of the worst defending I have ever seen

Oxford 3 Reading 0 ... a few years back, I was young. Fans singing "youre not fit to wear the hoops" Bullivants last season I think

Reading 0 Bristol Rovers ... Cureton got 4

Reading 1 Crystal Palace 6 ... Fans calling for Quinn and Goodings head from what I remember.

Peterborough definetly takes number one though

[Dirk Gently]

Walsall home and away in the FA Cup - 2003, I think - both matches were absolutely dire, but especially the replay.

A cold January night in front of a MadStad crowd of around 8,000 or do with no life or atmosphere.

We were utterly abject and Walsall were even worse. We went one down early on and later manged to scape an own goal, which meant the damn match wasn't over after 90 minutes, so we then had to have another half hour of absolute uninspired dross in which nothing happened and nobody showed the slightest bit of skill or tried to do anything - just like the rest of the match had been. Then we had the worst ever set of penalties - ISTR we missed at least 2 or 3 of our 5 and Walsall weren't much better but squeezed through.

Words cannot describe just how bad that match was - my over-riding memory is the match seeming to have been going on for about 6 weeks, and the knowledge that no matter how long they played nothing interesting was ever going to happen - in fact the only think of note that happened all night was the chorus of booing when the announcer said "there will now be two periods of extra time.".

WORST.MATCH.EVER!

[earleyroyal]

Totally agree with forbury lion for number 1, peterborough was TERRIBLE. Its still a running joke between me and my dad today

I also thought of pants day, but that was made so much better by the fact Sean Evers cried and had to be subbed

My 2 others would possibly be since our time in the premiership. Simply because they were 2 games i expected we would win, but here are some candidates

Watord away, December 9th 2006 dire game, long ball from both teams, NOTHING happened

West Ham home, September 1st 2007, some of the worst defending I have ever seen

Oxford 3 Reading 0 ... a few years back, I was young. Fans singing "youre not fit to wear the hoops" Bullivants last season I think

Reading 0 Bristol Rovers ... Cureton got 4

Reading 1 Crystal Palace 6 ... Fans calling for Quinn and Goodings head from what I remember.

Peterborough definetly takes number one though

Eurgh i'd forgotten that one. Went despite being ill because it was West Ham and we were invincible against them at home (matches in 03/04/06 seasons were some of the most enjoyable I've ever seen). We were crap and got stuffed, that's when people realised this season was not going to be comfortable or easy. The only funny moment was West Ham fans singing 'we've got Craig Bellamy' and the bloke next to me replying with 'I've got syphilis and a rape conviction but you don't hear me shouting about it!'

[Baines]

Other than the ones already mentioned, Rotherham 5-1 Reading.

The coldest day in recorded history. Butler's dive and smirk. Rubbish.

[SWLR]

Rochdale 4 Reading 1 in 1983 - absolutely woeful performance and completely spanked by oxf*rd Rochdale.

Oi - leave the 'Dale alone.

Millwall 5-0 Reading. Gutless performance - only Skittles put any effort in and we had to put up with 'we're all garin darn to the den' every 5 minutes, or so it seemed.

Very different to getting stuffed at home by say Ipswich (1-4?) when they were clearly a class above.

[AbovetheI]

oxf*rd 3-0 Reading

Reading 1-3 Swindon

Rading 1-6 Swindon

[size 12]

Rotherham 1 Reading 0 about four years ago, which basically meant that we had thrown away a possible lifeline for the play offs, against a side who recorded only their second or third win of the season (in March)

We played like a team who just couldn't be bothered, and no recognition was given for the 300 or so of us who travelled up there that night