Who do we consider our rivals?

[sloughroyal123]

Who would you guys consider as our rivals? I know there's the obvious Oxford and Swindon but there are others like Alsershot and more recently Brighton are starting to dislike us for some reason.

[West Stand Man]

Personally I consider our rivals to be the other 23 teams in the league.

Does school start again soon?

[PistolPete]

Personally I consider our rivals to be the other 23 teams in the league.

Does school start again soon?

What a weird reply.

I'd add Leeds slightly, the kicking they've given our players (Karacan) adds a bit of spice. But yeah, shame we have no major rivalry these days.

Fulham and Brentford are relatively are close, but there's no rivalry...

[Shackleton Royal]

Despite Karacan injuring himself in a bad challenge!? Swindon and Oxford don't even consider us rivals anymore!

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

Our club policy is we have no rivals.

And oxf*rd off newbie

[Stuka]

West Ham 100%

[bobby m's syrup]

This topic has been done to death. Nevertheless, in the interest of I am not sure what...

IMO, it's a fluid concept and the age of the supporter has much to do with perceived competition. Back in the 60s, the only rivals worthy of the name were Swindon. Brentford see-sawed between lower divisions and Millwall, Leyton Orient and even QPR, seemed much further away then they do now. Oxford and Aldershot only came into the picture when circumstances placed them or us in the same league. That's when fans began to see them above as challengers. Nowadays, Brighton, Fulham and even Bristol City could be included. As the world shrinks and teams rise and fall, so the list will change.

[Green]

The world is shrinking but I'm not sure that alone has much of an impact.

The train journey to Bristol is probably as long as it was in the 70s, and probably a damn sight more expensive. The fact you can eat authentic Japanese food when you get there is beside the point I feel.

[Lacoste]

The world is shrinking but I'm not sure that alone has much of an impact.

The train journey to Bristol is probably as long as it was in the 70s, and probably a damn sight more expensive. The fact you can eat authentic Japanese food when you get there is beside the point I feel.

Aldershot, it's always been Aldershot.

Swindon and Oxford don't care about our rivalry at all.

Aldershot still sing anti Reading songs from the terraces.

It's Aldershot and if we ever played them again, it would be carnage. They still come looking after an away day if they pass through Reading.

[K.URZ13]

i fcuking hate QPR. Fake Hoops.

[Mr.Swainey]

It's always been Grimsby.

[bobby1413]

Everton

The 22nd September will be a dark day for Reading town

... On a serious note yea I have heard that Aldershot still would class us as their rivals.

Swindon and Oxford - you say they don't care but I bet if we did play them there would be some real feeling behind the fixture.

The Pompey game the other night felt like a much more heated and passionate game than I'd expected

[tidus_mi2]

The only rivalries I see are from a personal level, I don't think we really have any club rivalries, not any more, if we end up in a league with one of our old rivals, one might spark up again, Swindon have got closest to that being on the verge of promotion to the Championship a few times. Even though it may be true that they don't consider us a rival, at least not in comparison to Oxford, I'm sure something could potentially flare up if we actually were to play one another in a competitive fixture.

Teams I love Reading beating:

West Ham - Pardewgate
QPR - fake hoops/ridiculous flaunting of FFP
Brighton - Illusory superiority, call us tinpot even though we're about the bloody same.
Leeds - Karacan kicking.
Portsmouth - Odious little team that screwed over so many people for their successful years.

Think that's it.

[PeterReadingborn59]

All other teams are rivals, either playing directly against them in league and cup matches or trying to hold on to our best players and bring in new players at all levels to strengthen the club's different squads.



Might be better to ask which clubs and / or players are particularly disliked,

Hopefully we'll never see Kevin Nolan play against Reading again.

[Platypuss]

Aldershot, it's always been Aldershot.

Always? Nah, Bobby has it right.

Oxford didn't even exist until the 60s: it was Swindon for a long time,

[East Grinstead Royal]

Weren't we supposed to be AFC Bournemouth's most hated rivals?

[No Fixed Abode]

Wycombe.

[handbags_harris]

This was covered in the most recent podcast on The Tilehurst End:-

http://thetilehurstend.sbnation.com/201 ... st-24-2015

In short, the conclusion we came to was most clubs we, as Reading fans, seem to hate are more of a grudge than rivalry. Rivalries are created over decades, whereas grudges can be created over a single incident. We hold grudges against the likes of Wolves, West Ham, Portsmouth, Leeds now, but the rivalry still focuses on Swindon, Oxford and Aldershot. Aldershot is a strange one as we haven't played them for 25 years and are, to all intents and purposes, a different club, while Swindon and Oxford care about each other more than they do us (which leads to my viewpoint that Oxford are the non-league upstarts that usurped our position and so I hate them more for that than anything else), while the other clubs in close proximity we have no history with (Wycombe) or have their own, sometimes bigger fish to fry (Brentford, QPR, Chelsea, Fulham, Bristol Rovers & City etc...)

[WoodleyRoyal]

cardiff not mentioned yet? quite surprised by that

[floyd__streete]

Personally I consider our rivals to be the other 23 teams in the league.

+1.

Never really understood the obsession football supporters have with clubs other than their own. H8ing people from another town simply because it happens to be nearby Weird behaviour.