Cardiff City will try to come out of the dangerous tailspin they’re in today when they entertain a Reading side that we haven’t beaten in over ten matches I think it is now with manager Mick McCarthy suddenly under serious pressure following those sacked in the morning chants on Tuesday.
For now, here’s seven Reading related questions dating back to the sixties which may help take the minds of some of you off our club’s woes.
60s. This native of Aberdare with a name that would be very familiar to Cardiff City fans of a more recent vintage played all of his football in the south east of England. Starting and finishing with Kentish non league clubs, he moved into the Football League to play at a ground which is no longer used for Londoners who are a lot more successful now than they were then.He had to move to Reading to make a league debut and became a regular in a long Elm Park career which just about stretched into this decade. Moving on to a play centre of sorts, he had five more years as a regular with a team that spent all of their time in division Four while he was with them. Can you name him?
70s. Three years earlier, he had been the toast of football because of something he had done to earn the honour of a pub (which is still there today) being named after him in the town (now a City) where he was playing at the time. However, with his career at a low ebb, he had a brief temporary spell at Reading in the mid 70s. He would return to Reading more than a decade later in his second football career so to speak and although it was not without it successes overall, his time with Reading was, just as when he was playing for them, unspectacular. Nevertheless, he had done enough at Elm Park to earn a job with a club that is a real power in the land these days and they weren’t too shabby thirty years ago either. On leaving them, he went globe trotting for the rest of his career as he found work on four separate continents, who is he?
80s. Road cooling on break down to become striker (5,6)?
90s. This England Under 21 capped full back played once for Reading against us in a game in which one of his team mates had his career ended by injury. His thirteen year playing career was spent performing in all five divisions between the Premier League and the Conference, but his considerable current reputation is founded on what he did on the European mainland over a seven year period, do you know who he is?
00s. Still sung about by Reading fans apparently, this midfielder was selected in a supporters best ever Reading team poll with over sixty per cent of the vote. He was also sent off while playing for them against us in this decade – who is he and where is he working now?
10s. He gained two full caps for his country and was in the Reading side for two victories in a season over us during this decade. It was while on international duty that he was called on as a sub and scored two penalties in a marathon Semi Final shoot out that his side won 13-12, name him.
20s. Which current member of the Reading squad turned out for Hednesford and Redditch early in his career and had captained the four teams he had played for prior to signing for Reading this summer?
Answers:
60s. Dave Jones began his career with Dover, then moved into the Football League with Brentford, Reading and Aldershot, before finishing his career at Dartford.
70.s There is a pub in Sunderland called the Porterfield in honour of the man who scored the winning goal in their 1-0 FA Cup Final win over Leeds in 1973. Three years later, Porterfield was loaned out to Reading for a short time and he later became their manager from 1989/91 before moving on to Chelsea and then finding work in the West Indies, Africa and Asia before coaching Armenia for a while shortly before his death in 2007.
80s. Colin Gordon.
90s. Graham Potter was in the Reading side beaten 1-0 at Ninian Park on Boxing Day 1999 while on loan to them from West Brom – this was the game where Chris Casper had his career ended by a Richard Carpenter tackle which saw the ex City midfielder taken to court. Potter started his coaching/managerial career in 2011 at Ostersund in Sweden who he took from the Fourth tier of the domestic league to become national cup winners.
00s. Current Wrexham boss Phil Parkinson was sent off in Reading’s 2-1 home defeat by us in September 2001.
10s. Roy Beerens played for Reading in both matches they won against us in 16/17 under the management of fellow Dutchman Japp Stam. Beerens also took past in a European Under 21 Semi Final shoot out win over England which saw a total of thirty two spot kicks taken.
20s. Scott Dann.