Guardian Championship 2011-12 Fans Blog...

[Tommy Youlden's Ears]

Lets face it anyone who follows Reading away comes from Reading.

Pre Permiership I would have agreed. Post Prem we've picked up a growing group of supporters with no affiliation to the area.

Don't agree with either of those statements, the evidence is here on this board and others, there are thousands of exiled fans who have been supporting the club from an early age who haven't lived in Reading for years

Agreed.

Why are there now so many threads here mithering on about "I'm a real fan, you're not", "We're a real club" etc. It's pretty obvious through all of them that we are supported by many different people, in many ways, and for many reasons. As are other clubs, even West Ham.

I know a forum is not supposed to be reasonable...but it's getting really dull reading rehashed versions of the same old same old.

Can't we get back to baiting Snowball? Much more fun.

[SouthDownsRoyal]

[The Rouge]

Lets face it anyone who follows Reading away comes from Reading.

Wronggggg.

Wronggggg.

[If you still hate Futcher]

Lets face it anyone who follows Reading away comes from Reading.

Pre Permiership I would have agreed. Post Prem we've picked up a growing group of supporters with no affiliation to the area.

Don't agree with either of those statements, the evidence is here on this board and others, there are thousands of exiled fans who have been supporting the club from an early age who haven't lived in Reading for years

There are numerous Reading fans who have never even lived in Berkshire

[Old Biscuitman]

Lets face it anyone who follows Reading away comes from Reading.

Pre Permiership I would have agreed. Post Prem we've picked up a growing group of supporters with no affiliation to the area.

Don't agree with either of those statements, the evidence is here on this board and others, there are thousands of exiled fans who have been supporting the club from an early age who haven't lived in Reading for years

Yes, I am a living example. I watched my first Reading game, sitting on my father's shoulders, in 1947 (vs Exeter, won 4-0). Since that time I have lived mostly at great distances from the town. I have only occasionally been able to watch games, a few of each at Elm Park and the Madjeski, but I have remained a constant supporter. Be it in a newspaper or on the internet, the Reading result always brings either joy or despair to me, even after 60+ years.

[Jackson Corner]

What I meant was teams like Derby, Forest and Leeds have London branches who would bring 50+ members to a game at the Mad Stad. We do not as far as I am aware have a Manchester or Newcastle branch of the supporters club. Of course I know there are lots of Royals who live in various parts of the UK who travel to games especially those located near to them.

[Ian Royal]

Our support is really very young when you think about it, we've pretty much doubled out attendence in 10 - 15 years. Look around the stadium and you'll see countless kids and teenagers, with plenty of women as well. Yet whenever I've been to an away game, the makeup has been far more dominated by the 18+ and male demographic.

This, IMO is the reason our away support is not numerous. Because a large proportion of our home crowd is young / women and they tend to go to away games less. Away games are more intimidating to go to, because you've got to find your way around, there's the question of whether you'll get any grief from the home fans, and they tend to be much more boozy as well. That doesn't really a lot of our support.

Give it another 5 - 10 years and I reckon we'll have taken our average away attendence up to 1000 - 1500.

And I think we finished with an average of about 1200 this season thanks to our promotion push and a trio of teams we'd have taken big support to at the end anyway. Which put us firmly mid-table.. at least from what I've been able to find.

Not many clubs average even close to 3000.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

somebody was sad enough to keep a (nearly) complete record this season on another forum



Don't read too much into the averages and totals, as not all teams' figures are complete.

[Ian Royal]

Yeah, that's what I found... I'm assuming Donny's trip to Cov involved not many fans as I thought we had the highest average visiting fans of any club...

[Mike Hunt]

Pre Permiership I would have agreed. Post Prem we've picked up a growing group of supporters with no affiliation to the area.

Don't agree with either of those statements, the evidence is here on this board and others, there are thousands of exiled fans who have been supporting the club from an early age who haven't lived in Reading for years

There are numerous Reading fans who have never even lived in Berkshire

Hi, I am Australian

[sandman]

PETERBOROUGH UTD:
Worst fans Reading. You're challenging for promotion and take fewer than 1,000 fans to a game in March. Poor.

Not when people are paying £31 to go to West Ham for the next away game.

[RoyalBlue]

Pre Permiership I would have agreed. Post Prem we've picked up a growing group of supporters with no affiliation to the area.

Don't agree with either of those statements, the evidence is here on this board and others, there are thousands of exiled fans who have been supporting the club from an early age who haven't lived in Reading for years

There are numerous Reading fans who have never even lived in Berkshire

My two kids included.

Lets face it anyone who follows Reading away comes from Reading.

Pre Permiership I would have agreed. Post Prem we've picked up a growing group of supporters with no affiliation to the area.

Don't agree with either of those statements, the evidence is here on this board and others, there are thousands of exiled fans who have been supporting the club from an early age who haven't lived in Reading for years

I left Reading & Berkshire in 1976, the same year that God left the area!

[Stuka]

I only briefly stayed in Reading (at a girlfriend's house in Caversham) circa 2001

[Seal]

What I meant was teams like Derby, Forest and Leeds have London branches who would bring 50+ members to a game at the Mad Stad. We do not as far as I am aware have a Manchester or Newcastle branch of the supporters club. Of course I know there are lots of Royals who live in various parts of the UK who travel to games especially those located near to them.

The London Royals are growing. We could at least fill a minibus now.

I've not lived in Reading for 13 years and go to more away games now then my mates who live in Reading.

[mr_number]

We could at least fill a minibus now.

HELLO WIGAN AWAY!

[leicsRoyal]

I moved away from Reading over twenty years ago.

My kids have never lived in Reading but they certainly won't be supporting anyone else!

[RockheadRumple]

I'm a season ticket holding London Royal, I make it for every home game of the season and plenty of away games too. Where's my cookie?

[The Rouge]

Do you have a choc chip on your shoulder about it?

[Hemenbruff Royal]

What I meant was teams like Derby, Forest and Leeds have London branches who would bring 50+ members to a game at the Mad Stad. We do not as far as I am aware have a Manchester or Newcastle branch of the supporters club. Of course I know there are lots of Royals who live in various parts of the UK who travel to games especially those located near to them.

Technically we do. 'Northern Royals' covers Manchester and Newcastle and everywhere else up north. And Scotland.

[Royal Lady]

LOL @ women not going to away games because it's intimidating!

I've NEVER been or even felt intimidated at an away game in over 30 years (except maybe when Barry Town ran at me) - I've always thought we have a fair old smattering of female fans at away grounds.