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The Royals Remembered

The Royals Remembered

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The Royals Remembered

Second Hand - Mint condition. 

About The Royals Remembered

Three of the best known names to play for Reading - Trevor Senior, George Best and Lawrie Sanchez - prepare to face New Zealand in a friendly at Elm Park in 1984.
But which of them scored the first penalty shoot-out goal in Britain.... who was the first player to be sent off for a professional foul..... and which of the trio was born in a pub?

The answers, plus thousands of other facts are to be found in ROYALS REMEMBERED - The Official Who's Who of Reading Football Club. Every player to have appeared in a competitive game for Reading since they joined the League in 1920, plus all the club's managers and Wartime guests are featured - their statistical details being enhanced by almost 800 individual 'pen pictures', and over 100 photographs.

At first glance a book on the players of a football club that has spent most of its League history in the lower divisions might not look too interesting. However, Reading Football Club has been graced by some of the finest players in the country, has had its fair share of 'characters' and, like most clubs, has players who are legends amongst its own supporters.

As well as over 80 internationals from 16 different countries across all five continents, Reading have included five Olympians with three gold medals to their credit, War heroes, match fixers, League record holders and even a player who has had a TV character named after him.

All are included here, along with every Reading player who has made a competitive first team appearance for the club since its entry into the League in 1920, whether their career lasted fifty years or five minutes. Also featured are all Reading's managers over the last 80 plus years, the World War Two guests, and a special group who never played a competitive game but still deserved a mention.

My credentials are that I have supported Reading Football Club for over 45 years and the last 30 of those have seen me contribute a variety of statistical and historical articles to almost every one of the club's programmes during that period. However, my support was pre-ordained long before my first game. My parents had their first date at Elm Park, while I was born a Martin Hicks clearance from the ground, being delivered by the club doctor.

This book has been very much a labour of love and wherever possible all facts have been double checked, even more in the case of the occasional discrepancy. Consequently, this has ensured that this is the most complete and accurate history of Reading's players ever published. My research has also been able to correct a few popular misconceptions and so the details of Reading's first substitute, fastest goal, or first League sending off may surprise even the most knowledgeable Reading fan. I have even discovered a 'missing' manager who seems to have avoided most other record books.

On the other hand, unlike fellow Reading historian, David Downs who pointed out that Adrian Williams had worn every Reading shirt except number 10, only for Adie to play in that shirt the following week, I cannot claim to have influenced team selection - but I should have! During Trevor Senior's record-breaking goalscoring season of 1983-84, I wrote one of my more obscure articles that statistically 'proved' that Reading's goal machine should be dropped to substitute and brought on for the second half. Amazingly, our normally astute manager, the late, great Maurice Evans, ignored my advice and on the day the article was published, Super Trev missed a first half penalty that would have won our FA Cup-tie against Oxford!

And finally...I know Reading purists will point out that the book's title does not reflect the fact that the majority of players featured are really 'Biscuitmen' and not 'Royals' but the need for a punchy title meant that our current nickname got the nod. I hope fans of all ages and all clubs gain as much pleasure from this book as I have had in writing it.

'Up The Biscuits'
'Come On You Royals'
'G'arn URZ'

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