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My first ever match at the Madejski Stadium was Reading vs Bristol City, on 7th August 1999, in what is now League One, the first match of the new season.
The first signs that it might be an interesting day came on the walk into Reading town centre. Wandering past Edwards wine bar everyone was standing around outside. It turns out, there had been a fight break out involving some Bristol City fans. Further down the road, there was a similar scene at Yates’ Wine Bar.
(Fun fact: Reading is now actually chock full of wine bars, actual ones with proper wine. This is a shame, because it it used to be a banging place for a night out).
News clipping of the row that engulfed Gerard Lavin in 1999
From town, it was a bus ride out to the stadium.
The ‘decent’ away following was actually bloody enormous – close to 3,000 had made the relatively easy 80-mile hop down the M4. By this time, it was really hot, and there was a definite edge to the atmosphere.
Reading took an early lead, but the real fun started midway through the first half.
The ball bounced out of play, and Bristol City’s Gerard Lavin ran towards it.
Upon being heckled by the Reading fans on that side, he did what any person in their right mind would do – he blasted the ball into the crowd as hard as he possibly could. The ball actually broke the wrist of the Reading fan that it hit.
Cue a near-riot, as Reading fans tried to get onto the pitch to attack Lavin. The stewards managed to keep them off, and after a few minutes, it settled down.
The referee then, quite rightly, gave Lavin a red card.
Cue a near-riot in the away end now, as Bristol City fans attempted to invade the pitch in protest. Gerard Lavin was charged with assault for this, and had to pay the fan £300 in damages.
The ten-man Robins battled on gamely, and leveled with ten minutes or so to go, leading to a different kind of pitch invasion from the away fans. However, no sooner had they done so, than Reading went back down the other end and retook the lead. The Royals held on to win 2-1.
On the bus back into town, one couldn’t help but notice that there were a LOT of Bristol City fans who were apparently choosing to make the near three-mile walk back into the centre of Reading.
It transpired that a couple of their own buses had been fairly well smashed up by some City fans before the game, and the bus company took none too kindly to it and refused to provide buses for the visiting fans back into town, leaving those fans who had travelled to Reading by train with no choice but to make the long hike back to the station. When they arrived back in town, but suffice to say, there wasn’t too much sympathy from the Reading locals.
All in all, not a great day for the good name of the sport of football. But, looking at it from the point of view of a neutral looking for an interesting afternoon……… it was absolutely brilliant fun.
Things get lively between the two teams in Saturday’s game between Reading and Bristol City
HOW MUCH OF A DERBY?
Reading vs Bristol City is not really a derby game, in the sense that neither club would consider the other to be their main rivals.
After Aldershot went under in 1992, Reading lost their nearest geographical rivals. Reading have never played the rejuvenated club. That left them to nose into the Swindon Town/Oxford City rivalry. The addition of a third force in an existing rivalry rarely does anything to break up the main one, and Oxford and Swindon see each other as their main rivals.
Bristol City are nearer Swindon their third rivals than Reading are
Bristol City on the other hand are awash with rivals.
Bristol Rovers are the most obvious rivals, then to a lesser extent Cardiff and Swindon.
Plymouth and Yeovil produce west country rivalries but are way down the Robins’ food chain.
However, with none of these rivals ever seeming to be in the same division much these days (Bristol City and Bristol Rovers haven’t been in the same division since 2001, for example), Bristol City v Reading has become a de facto rivalry of sorts, when they have been each other’s nearest club in the division.
Bristol City won 1-0 here last season with a late goal from Aden Flint.
The celebrations from the away fans included some popping of red smoke, which was brilliant to see. Unfortunately, the EFL have cracked down on pyro in a big way since then, with all 72 clubs signing a ‘Club Charter on Pyrotechnics’ which includes a minimum three year ban for any fan attempting to bring smoke bombs, flares or fireworks into the ground.
With this being Guy Fawkes weekend, there were plenty of reminders in the media during the week about this Charter and the punishments.
City fans celebrate their opening goal at Reading 2018
BACK TO THE PRESENT
Saturday’s game was a big one for Reading manager Paul Clement, who has been under pressure from the Royals fans following a rough start to the season. Reading were languishing in the bottom three at start of play with just twelve points from their first fifteen games.
City, by contrast, were somewhat exceeding expectations. They had, after all, lost three key players in the summer (Joe Bryan, Bobby Reid and Aden Flint) from the side that fell away badly in the second half of last season following a rousing start. They sat just above halfway coming into this game.
City sold out their allocation of 2,100 tickets for this game.
Up until recently, away fans got the whole of one end at the Mad Stad, but Reading wanted to have a ‘supporters section’ for their own fans, so they took the other half for that. This idea was introduced at the tail end of last season, and attracted decent numbers into this section, aided by the offer of a free beer for all fans who transferred there.
This season, the numbers have dwindled considerably, although the folks who do go in there do a good job supporting the team. The club must wonder if it is worth it on days like today, though, when they could easily have sold out the whole end to visiting fans.
Empty seats at the Reading Supporters Section end.
The game started with a bang, with Reading taking the lead in the 8th minute through Yakou Meite.
The Royals dominated the early stages, but Marlon Pack equalised in the 22nd minute with City’s first serious attack, to the groans of the home fans.
If they were frustrated with that, though, then the way the first half ended must have driven them up the wall. Reading retook the lead in first half stoppage time with a brilliant blast from outside the area by Liam Kelly, his first goal of the season, only for the visitors to go straight down the other end and equalise through Josh Brownhill. 2-2 at half time, pretty entertaining stuff.
The game continued to be open as the second half started, and the crowd gradually got more and more engaged in it.
Reading took the lead for the third time in the 66th minute through Leandro Bacuna’s smart finish, and the banter that had been flying between the two sets of fans for much of the afternoon really started to reach fever pitch.
Bristol City piled everything forward in search of a third equalizer, hit the post, messed up a couple of excellent positions, forced one great save from Reading goalkeeper Sam Walker. But it was not to be their day, and Reading held on to win 3-2.
Thankfully, there did not appear to be any issues between the two sets of fans after the game and stewards acted quickly to calm tensions during play.
Stewards head into the stands to calm tensions between the two sets of supporters in the second half of Saturday’s game
This was a huge result for the Royals, who now have an easy-on-paper home game against rock-bottom Ipswich Town to take them into the international break. Win that one, and it would be four wins from their last five home games, and their fans will be feeling pretty good about life.
City still look a decent side, although they will not be happy with the goals they conceded in this game. A terrific game, and another feisty example of all that is good about an old-fashioned English derby.
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