Promotion Season 2006
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I remember clearly the first game of the season against Plymouth. We lost at the last moment to a fluke goal. Although I was bitterly disappointed I found myself telling people later not to worry because we'd played well. Going into the campaign I hadn't expected much. I felt the season was going to be harder and to be honest wth the likes of Southampton, Wolves, Leicester, Crystal Palace and Leeds I felt it was going to be a league dominated by so called 'big' clubs. How wrong I was.
The next games saw the wins at Brighton and Preston and suddenly our 'poor start' had become a relatively good start. I started to see that Little and particularly Convey were on form. Lita up front looked an exciting find, and then there was Doyle. This unone bargain from Cork city could play, and more importantly, score! The bench looked stronger as well. The likes of Hunt, Oster and Gunnarson gave us strength in depth that was lacking the season before. As a fan I could feel the competition for places keeping everyone on their toes. I'm sure the desire to be in Germany with USA helped Hannemann and Convey focus their minds as well!
As a Reading fan of many years I was naturally expecting it to end at any moment, but I remember the home win agaianst Sheffield United as increasing my belief that maybe, just maybe, we were really going to do something. The added ingredient, apart from a quality replacement in the guise of Gunnarson, was luck. We were getting the breaks.
My late father would tell me that Reading always suffered a collapse after Christmas, I always felt the game at Wolverhampton would be another vital pointer to our longterm form. Sure enough we won and the record run continued. Even on New Year's Eve when we played fairly averagely at Derby up popped Shane Long with a late equaliser. I had been sure before that we would lose.
It was becoming surreal, we played magnificently at times during the season and there was a vitality and skill level I've never witnessed in a Reading side before. Above all there was belief.
I was fortunate enough to be in Leicester on the day we were promoted. I was strangely emotional as I realised we'd done it. I couldn't quite go wild like some of the younger fans around me, not because I lacked the physical capability to do it, but because I just found myself looking back on so many 'nearly' years of watching Reading. I also started to think about those that would have dearly loved to have witnessed the moment in history but were no longer alive. The celebrations on the pitch summed up the genuine friendship and mutual respect that existed amongst the team. I texted Bobby Convey after the game and was impressed to get a reply within thirty minutes! I'll also remember the politeness of the Leicester fans that day - the club were good hosts and showed the sporting side of football on a day where they had to hand their stadium over to someone else's celebration.
Well the run-in was incredible. After leicester my cynical side said we'd throw away the championship and probably wouldn't get the record points total. Okay I'm a Reading fan - I'm very cynical! I'm so glad I was wrong (again)! The home game against Derby where we scored five without reply in the second half summed up our dominance and style over the entire season. After the game we patiently stayed in our seats before charging onto the pitch as the players appeared in the directors box....my normally reserved 'football friend' insisted I take a picture of him with the team in the background!
Favourite memories of the season? Lita's goal against Crystal Palace, his hat trick against WBA in the cup, Leicester away, Shane Long's two goals v Derby, and of course Murty's penalty winner on the final game of the season.
For once Reading had followed the script all the way to the end, and enjoyed the rewards and attention they deserved. If this is a dream - don't wake me up!
Jonathan Richards
