My second team -Reading

[Royality creeps In]

http://thetwounfortunates.com/my-second-team-reading/

[PistolPete]

Great read!

[Pepe the Horseman]

Enjoyed that.

Spin off

Anyone else switched allegiances? I was a Spurs fan until I was 11. Not sure that counts though.

[Stockport Royal]

I switched from United to Reading at about the age of 7 after being taken to Elm Park, we lost 2-0 to Huddersfield, in love from the start.

Pretty sure I met this guy in the pub before the Barnsley game this season, had a good chat.

[CrowthorneRoyal]

Swapped from Forest to Reading when my family moved back to the area when I was a teenager

[muirinho]

Swapped from Forest to Reading when my family moved back to the area when I was a teenager

Never really had a soccer team (yes, it's soccer where I'm from, ), but had a soft spot for Leyton Orient from when I was pretty young - they had some big cup match (against Arsenal?) which was on Irish TV for some reason-or-other, and the commentator said something like "Tonight London belongs to the Orient", which I thought was cool. And there were lots and lots of yellow balloons. Also cool.

Of course they got hammered, so this prepared me from an early stage for the joys of following Reading.

I couldn't say Reading are my second football club, as such, as I'd never actually seen an Os game live. What did happen was that when we moved over here, I tried taking the kids to London Irish, but neither they nor I were able to muster up much enthusiasm - if you are a Munster fan, LI are a bit lightweight in comparison - so we switched to football instead. Now they have all buggered off to university etc, but I'm hooked and go on my own (apart from when my oldest is home, he's remained a fan - we try to get to a couple of aways or friendlies together as well)

[Hound]

good read. Very similar to my own, including previous supporting a random northern football club in the lower ends of the league due to parents moving us there for a couple of years in my early teens

Now living in Reading, Having kids and wanting to get them into football got me into going to Reading - now go most weeks and the odd away trip without the kids in tow

[genome]

Enjoyed that.

Spin off

Anyone else switched allegiances? I was a Spurs fan until I was 11. Not sure that counts though.

Been Reading since I was 4 years old. Hope Kestrel doesn't see this but I was also Liverpool fan until the age of about 8 and absolutely cried my eyes out when Cantona scored in the FA Cup Final '96.

My family has always been Tottenham so I guess they're my second team now, if I have one.

[Hendo]

Never really had a second team.

Whole family come from Reading and are Reading fans so I didn't have too much of a choice!

Have a soft spot for Lincoln and look out for their results as I went to uni there and went to a few games.

[MoorgateRoyal]

I was a Reading fan from the start but I did follow Shaka to Newcastle when he left as he was my absolute hero and I was only five at the time. Newcastle were also superb in that era, too, which helped. I didn't follow Shaka any further after that, thank God, and my interest waned as I got a little older.

I had a Reading season ticket throughout that time and I felt like I supported them equally - they were also so far away from each other in the league that I didn't feel like I was in too much of a conflict. I don't look out for their results at all now and don't really have any residual feelings for them either.

Now I keep an eye on Plymouth's scores as my best mate is a fan, and we usually go to an away game every season if we can. Plymouth fans are great, really, and still follow in large numbers after all the shit they've been put through in the last few years.

[Gordons Cumming]

It is totally unacceptable to change clubs.

Totally unacceptable.

He is not a proper fan.



Nice read though.................................

[Forbury Lion]

Being a Championship team, it’s easier to stay in touch with things going at Reading than it ever was at Lincoln. There is generally more interest and more stuff written on the internet, including the absolute excellent The Tilehurst End and its weekly podcast, which is must-listen for me. Plenty of non-Reading fans apparently listen to it too, and I couldn’t recommend it enough.

Kick in the teeth there for hobnob, not even a mention for the old girl.

[Forbury Lion]

I have no problem with new Reading fans be they fresh to the game or second hand fans from other clubs. Perhaps it would be a bit different if we were selling out every week and then 5,000 Swindon fans suddenly wake up, see the light and decide to switch allegiances pushing some of the long time loyal fans out.

I also despise the Premier League tourists who come to the games to mostly watch the opposition big name players & maybe get a selfie/autograph with no interest in Reading whatsoever.

[West Stand Man]

Swapped from Forest to Reading when my family moved back to the area when I was a teenager

Never really had a soccer team (yes, it's soccer where I'm from, ), but had a soft spot for Leyton Orient from when I was pretty young - they had some big cup match (against Arsenal?) which was on Irish TV for some reason-or-other, and the commentator said something like "Tonight London belongs to the Orient", which I thought was cool. And there were lots and lots of yellow balloons. Also cool.

Of course they got hammered, so this prepared me from an early stage for the joys of following Reading.

I couldn't say Reading are my second football club, as such, as I'd never actually seen an Os game live. What did happen was that when we moved over here, I tried taking the kids to London Irish, but neither they nor I were able to muster up much enthusiasm - if you are a Munster fan, LI are a bit lightweight in comparison - so we switched to football instead. Now they have all buggered off to university etc, but I'm hooked and go on my own (apart from when my oldest is home, he's remained a fan - we try to get to a couple of aways or friendlies together as well)

Don't be embarrassed by the use if 'soccer' as it is a British word used extensively to describe Association Football. The current generation of fans seem to think that they have a monopoly on deciding what is and is not traditional in our game. Hence this rather quaint idea that it is wrong to call it soccer - wrong!

Other 'traditions' that today's young fans seem keen to lose include;
- the use of aids to make a noise. It used to be rattles and is now rumble sticks etc. Apparently they are naff and not part of the game - wrong.
- not allowing fans to mix. Even as late as the 1960s it was common to have fans from both sides mixing in the stadium. At EP, like most stadiums, it was usual for the more vocal fans to get behind the goal their team was attacking. There was a delay in kick off as the fans switched ends after the coin toss (if required) and again they switched over at half time. Apparently it is 'traditional' to fight the opposition fans - wrong.

So, feel free to use the old English nickname for our beautiful game, it is fine to call it soccer if you are going to be traditional!

[AthleticoSpizz]

^ nice

however

Fans were"mixing" well into the 1970's........and at some grounds even into the early/mid 1980's.....remember pay-at-the-gate?

[Z175]

I think Reading are the second team of a lot of season ticket holders... but you are much more of a genuine football fan if your first team was Lincoln when you don't live anywhere near it.

A random story but a good one.

How on earth that pitiful last season in the PL could have made anyone support Reading I don't know. (Unless you only went in Jan)

[Only one Trevor Morley]

Time to confess. Until I was 15, thanks to my father, I supported the fake hoops ... I went to the 1986 milk cup final when I was very young and then saw them play about twice a season until 1992. After a flirtation with Wokingham town in the glory era of the late eighties (when 2000 turned up to see a top of table clash against slough along with dj bear in the ultimately unsuccessful attempt to get to the GM Vauxhall conference) I started earning enough from my paper round to go to reading. First match was 1-1 against Bradford. I was hooked and loved the fact I could go every other week so by the time I headed to uni in 1994 I was able to answe the question who do you support simply by saying reading. QPR were definitely second team until late nineties when we kept beating them and I kept enjoying it. The irony is that my old man also started going to watch reading occasionally and became a season ticket holder four years ago and couldn't tell you a single qpr player now! I feel I have no connection to them now and don't even look out for the score.

[Jagermesiter1871]

I find the last few paragraphs somewhat ironic with the way the club has been run of late. That and the guys an obvious glutton for punishment. If there was any period to turn you off supporting Reading it must have been the last 4/5 years.

[BR0B0T]

Reading are my second team.

[Hampshire Royal]

I was born in Middlesbrough and lived there until I was about 10 weeks old when we moved to Germany (my Dad was in the Army).Travelled around a fair bit and lived in NW London for a while.My Dad, who was an Arsenal fan, took me and my brother to Highbury a couple of times, but it just didn't click!

We spent some time in Tidworth and I went to a few Saints games, but again, nothing clicked. When I was fifteen, my Dad left the Army and we were told that we would be moving to London. When he said we were actually moving to Reading, I had never heard of it and assumed it was a borough of London!! Anyway, I went to Elm Park with my brother and watched some sort of pre-season competition and I, quite literally felling love with RFC. When I was twenty, I joined the RAF and never really lived in the town again (apart from short periods). In that time, no matter where I was in the World, I would always come back for at least one game a season.

My proudest achievement, is making my two sons into Reading fans, even though they never lived in the town, and all their mates were Pompey fans. My younger son now lives in Ealing and has a Season Ticket and goes to as many games, home and away, as he can.