"Magic hat" book - Mark McGhee's tenure

[Sutekh]

Arrived yesterday. Living overseas from 1999-2020, I missed out on the Pardew/Coppell era and the ascent to the Premier league, so for me, the McGhee era was the best that I witnessed first-hand. Was not all plain sailing and it took a couple of years before we became the best footballing side in League Two, and then League One. I can remember some fans calling for McGhee's head early in his tenure, but Madejski showed admirable patience. McGhee also had a great head for bargain quality players: Jimmy Quinn, Kevin Dillon, Dariusz Wdowczyk, and the brilliant Simon Osborn, who still remains one of the best players I have seen in the hoops. I was gutted when McGhee left.

Agreed on Simon Osborn, probably amongst my top 3 favourite players for Reading ever.

We were away at Pompey just before Christmas that season wondering "will he, won't he?" and thinking that might be his final match and IIRC it was.

Simon is 54 now, last heard of in the game as Margate manager for a month in 2013.

Absolute bargain of just £90000 in 1995. In today’s money that’s about £200k! And that was long before the days of El Nicky controlling negotiations.

Perhaps we should try & bring MM out of retirement when the inevitable happens

[The Cap]

Arrived yesterday. Living overseas from 1999-2020, I missed out on the Pardew/Coppell era and the ascent to the Premier league, so for me, the McGhee era was the best that I witnessed first-hand. Was not all plain sailing and it took a couple of years before we became the best footballing side in League Two, and then League One. I can remember some fans calling for McGhee's head early in his tenure, but Madejski showed admirable patience. McGhee also had a great head for bargain quality players: Jimmy Quinn, Kevin Dillon, Dariusz Wdowczyk, and the brilliant Simon Osborn, who still remains one of the best players I have seen in the hoops. I was gutted when McGhee left.

Agreed on Simon Osborn, probably amongst my top 3 favourite players for Reading ever.

We were away at Pompey just before Christmas that season wondering "will he, won't he?" and thinking that might be his final match and IIRC it was.

Simon is 54 now, last heard of in the game as Margate manager for a month in 2013.

Absolute bargain of just £90000 in 1995. In today’s money that’s about £200k! And that was long before the days of El Nicky controlling negotiations.

Perhaps we should try & bring MM out of retirement when the inevitable happens

Totally agree. Simon Osborn was a superb player. The way he used to orchestrate the midfield was a joy to watch. It really was like watching poetry in motion and he most certainly played a massive part in taking the team on to another level.

[RG30]

And another one.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rescuing-Royal ... 1837734380

[under the tin]

Certainly some of the best football I ever saw at EP.
When the system "clicked", we were like the old Harlem Globetrotters basketball team in that the opposition couldn't get near the ball, and I remember a home game vs. Bournemouth where that happened.
Had that been a boxing match, the Ref would have stopped it at H/T.
Second time, I remember a weekender away at Blackpool, we won 4-0, and thousands of the home fans gave our team a standing ovation at the end.
The third time it happened, boot on the other foot, I was one of the home fans giving a standing ovation to a truly awesome Arsenal side at the Madstad. Same score.
McGhee, it should not be forgotten, was partnered by Colin Lee, and when he left here, that partnership slowly dissolved, and MM's career appeared to decline. Shades of Cloughie/Peter Taylor?

[RoyalBlue]

And another one.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rescuing-Royal ... 1837734380

The author, Josh Lewin, is an American mate of Rob Couhig and Joe Jacobson, who I believe they were planning to use to promote the club in the US. I was given his contact details so I could link him up with our daughter who works for SiriusXM FC and is also an MLS commentator for Apple TV.

I guess that being a mate of RC & JJ he might well have some interesting inside info to divulge in the book.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Lewin

[RoyalBlue]

What does it really take to run a football club? And how does a new owner win over a rabid fanbase still feeling the bruises of the recent past? Especially when that owner is an American who unapologetically shoots from the hip...

'Rabid fanbase' ?!

[Forbury Lion]

Just saw this Steve Death book "Tiny Keeper: Steve Death, Record Breaker, Shy Genius and Maverick!" by Alan Hester

The extraordinary story of Steve Death, once the shortest goalkeeper in the Football League – at just 5ft 7in. He was good enough to keep Peter Shilton out of the England Schoolboys side, yet spent his career in Divisions Three and Four and became a lower-league legend.


This tale of a shy genius, record-breaker and maverick covers:


Death’s time as part of the legendary West Ham United academy under Ron Greenwood when he trained and played alongside World Cup-winning trio Sir Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters and Bobby Moore
How only his lack of height stopped him playing at the highest level
How he carved out a brilliant career in Divisions Three and Four, playing 537 games for Reading and winning Player of the Year four times, on the first occasion while still on loan
How in 1979 he set a Football League record for the longest run of clean sheets – that record still stands!
His modest life outside of football, living quietly with his family in a club house at the old Elm Park ground
Exclusive first-hand accounts from West Ham and Reading players, journalists, supporters and family members
Described on his debut as ‘an insignificantly built bundle of daredevil energy’, Death played without gloves, caught crosses one-handed and saved penalties instinctively. His remarkable story provides a fascinating insight into the lost world of 1970s lower-league football.

https://amzn.eu/d/0aRGEvl0

[RoyalBlue]

Just saw this Steve Death book "Tiny Keeper: Steve Death, Record Breaker, Shy Genius and Maverick!" by Alan Hester

The extraordinary story of Steve Death, once the shortest goalkeeper in the Football League – at just 5ft 7in. He was good enough to keep Peter Shilton out of the England Schoolboys side, yet spent his career in Divisions Three and Four and became a lower-league legend.


This tale of a shy genius, record-breaker and maverick covers:


Death’s time as part of the legendary West Ham United academy under Ron Greenwood when he trained and played alongside World Cup-winning trio Sir Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters and Bobby Moore
How only his lack of height stopped him playing at the highest level
How he carved out a brilliant career in Divisions Three and Four, playing 537 games for Reading and winning Player of the Year four times, on the first occasion while still on loan
How in 1979 he set a Football League record for the longest run of clean sheets – that record still stands!
His modest life outside of football, living quietly with his family in a club house at the old Elm Park ground
Exclusive first-hand accounts from West Ham and Reading players, journalists, supporters and family members
Described on his debut as ‘an insignificantly built bundle of daredevil energy’, Death played without gloves, caught crosses one-handed and saved penalties instinctively. His remarkable story provides a fascinating insight into the lost world of 1970s lower-league football.

https://amzn.eu/d/0aRGEvl0

It's a good book. I bought it when it was launched at the SCL/Hotel and got it signed by the author and quite a few of the players mentioned in it.

[skipper]

Just posting as not sure everyone's aware, there's a great book just out written by a fan on Mark McGhee's spell at the club, up to the play-off final in 1995.

Whilst we all remember the last 2 seasons and ending, its easy to forget the state the club was in when McGhee joined and how poorly the team was performing which I'd pretty much forgotten about.

In addition to re-vamping the squad, he transferred the playing style from the pub football played under latter day Branfoot and Porterfield to an easy on the eye passing style at a time when the long ball game still ruled, certainly in the lower leagues. It also took the fans a good couple of seasons to buy in to it too as well as the local press.

There's several quotes from McGhee's post match press conferences and programme notes as well as regular Evening Post articles/commentary from Clive Baskerville.

There's less player's anecdotes than the Steve Death book but its still a great read.

Saw this on one of the Reading facebook pages and bought it. I started going to games in 94/95, so this book is really delivering something special for me. I also found some old programes from my dad, from that era. As someone said above, it was this period that set us on our road. And I've loved every minute of reading it so far!

[South Coast Royal]

About two thirds of the way through it and for those of us who were around during that time it is a cracking nostalgic read with a few "I never knew that" and" I had forgotten that".

Very well written for this kind of book and fully recommended to those who want to relive those distant days when we were little Reading with a little ground but with a team that was very much on the up.

[Sutekh]

Indeed! Forgot that we tried to get Stan Collymore when he was at Southend. But, you know, JM had this cheap budget…..

[Jerry St Clair]

McGhee, it should not be forgotten, was partnered by Colin Lee, and when he left here, that partnership slowly dissolved, and MM's career appeared to decline. Shades of Cloughie/Peter Taylor?

Yeah, spot on. McGhee/Lee were the perfect manager/coach combo. Neither achieved those heights after McGhee was sacked Wolves.

As for the early years, I have a clear memory of a game in his first season when McGhee was player manager. Two blokes in front of us on the Southbank were shouting at him during one of the classic McGhee patient build up periods of play. McGhee heard them and, while the game was still going on, marched over to the perimeter wall and told them in pretty colourful terms to be patient and that his way was definitely going to work. And he was right.

[South Coast Royal]

Have just finished the book and it is a cracking bit of nostalgia for those that were there.

It is difficult to convey the impact that McGhee had on the team-up until his time we had just the one season under Mansell where we watched something different from normal lower division football.

It is clear from the book that McGhee insisted that we should always play our passing game, something that Barcelona and Pep have done in modern times but this was 30+ years ago and at the lower level of football.

The shame is that now we are back at that level and playing football from the dark ages.

[The Cap]

Have just finished the book and it is a cracking bit of nostalgia for those that were there.

It is difficult to convey the impact that McGhee had on the team-up until his time we had just the one season under Mansell where we watched something different from normal lower division football.

It is clear from the book that McGhee insisted that we should always play our passing game, something that Barcelona and Pep have done in modern times but this was 30+ years ago and at the lower level of football.

The shame is that now we are back at that level and playing football from the dark ages.

The footie under Jack Mansell was a joy to watch. It may well have been for a brief period of time, however the transition from defence to attack with our grease lightening forwards was a joy to watch and one of my favourite times, in terms of watching the team play.