Formed way back in the year of our lord 1871 at a public meeting held in the “Bridge Street Rooms”
1877 saw them enter the FA Cup for the first time along with an amalgamation with the Reading Hornets.
1889 saw Early FC join up with them and the combined outfits were the first winners if the Berks&Bucks Cup in 1878-79.
The Royals have played home matches at five different venues starting out at the grandly titled Reading Recreation Reading Cricket Club and then eleven years later Coley Park.
1889 saw a move to the Caversham Cricket Ground.
The club didn’t stay long and in 1896 Elm Park became home before huge investment saw The Madejski Stadium built and open for business in 1998. (Named after John Madejski their benefactor, the Dave Whelan of Berkshire!)
Notable mangers of time gone by include Ted Drake, Roy Bentley, Charlie Hurley, Ian Porterfield, Jimmy Quinn, Alan Pardew, Steve Coppell & Brendan Rodgers.
Brian McDermott led them to promotion to the Premiership in the 2012.13 season, Wigan Athletic fans will remember the glorious day at the JJB when Latics won 3-1 to gain their promotion to the top flight in 2005.
The Royals were themselves promoted a season later and stayed for two seasons before being relegated back to The Championship.
In 1983-84 they were unbeaten in League matches at Elm Park during their promotion season and equaled their achievements in consecutive seasons 1933-34 & 1934-35 when finishing respectively third and second in Division Three (South)
Fred Gregory once played as an emergency goalie, also played at full-back, half-back ( proper positions ! )and centre forward while at the club, not bad for a player who once cost Man City £2500 at the tender age of 17 from Donnie Rovers.
Dennis Watkin only ever scored 4 FA Cup goals for the club, they all came in a 7-2 win over Newport County in the winter of ’36.
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