Hi guys, After the Real/Fake Hoops discussion last month - thanks once again for your interest - I'm going to be even more direct now! Well, this is to ask ** cough ** "Do you consider Reading to be - rivals"? !! Our guys have just had a poll on my forum about this, and QPR did get a mention as "public enemy"! I don't think personally speaking we can really say that there's so much rivalry from our side - despite the voting of the 'chief' rivals as seen by Reading fans on 'RR': West Ham Utd (25%) Portsmouth (22.2%) Oxford (11.1%) Q.P.R. (11.1%) Swindon (8.3%) Chelsea (8.3%) Southampton (5.6%) AFC Wimbledon (0%) Aldershot (0%) Bournemouth (0%) Brentford (0%) Brighton (0%) Bristol City (0%) Bristol Rovers (0%) Cardiff City (0%) Fulham (0%) Millwall (0%) MK Dons (0%) Swansea City (0%) Watford (0%) Wycombe Wanderers (0%) OTHER choice (please name later in the thread) (8.3%) - just on 40 votes in - We carried it out seeing that our old-time traditional rivals - Aldershot, Oxford and Swindon - we haven't seen for donkey's years now. So this was a testing to see who, if any, might replace those three. If QPR are there, then take it as a compliment that the rivals thing means that our younger fans are chasing bigger clubs with whom to be rivals. But that doesn't mean that there's real animosity or aggro either, that should be made clear. Maybe it's even the fame of some of your old BBC 606-ers - you know who I mean! - that has helped to put you on the rival map, so, brothers, that doesn't make much of a reason to have a ding-dong between us then ... Anyway, how do YOU feel about 'rival' claims with Reading FC? All the best, daib0 (David)
If we didn't both wear blue and white hoops I doubt anyone would care. I think you'll struggle to find any QPR fan that sees Reading as a rival. Plenty that are mildly irritated by the constant theft of songs and nicknames in some sort of attempt to create an identity but no real hatred.
We are a London club so any London derby has a ring about it. Time may change as you have a moneyman waiting to play ... in a way Reading and it's future fixtures will rely on how you do and how you grow. Maybe in a few years it may be Reading v Real Madrid or it maybe a traditional Reading V Oxford. Have a type with your own team, what does it look like in print ... QPR V Chelsea, QPR V Fulham, QPR V Spurs, QPR V Arsenal, QPR V West Ham, QPR V Charlton, QPR V Millwall, QPR V Crystal Palace. Man Utd V QPR of course Man City V QPR now looks good. Everton V QPR, Liverpool V QPR. Heritage we sort have always belonged ... Reading have to grow there a bit but it's all possible. This is what TF's sees for us I believe we have to catch up quickly in order to reclaim any status
Yep, interesting, and I understand that. But why was Stoke mentioned at the beginning, they're hardly local - or have I forgotten something obvious?!
There were a couple of particularly ill-tempered matches we won up at their place under Ian Holloway, one of which ended with one of their fans attacking our goalkeeper as stewards watched on and left him to it and another where our coaches got bricked as they edged away from the ground. I think that's all unless something preceded it.
As said above, their fans attacked our goalie on the pitch, our players then went to help and then got done by the FA while Stoke got off with nothing. Theres also Cardiff and Sam Hammans bodyguard setting off the hotel fire alarm at 3am the night before the playoff final.
OP can I ask why we're so high up? 8.3 % is staggeringly high considering we've played you guys relatively few times in our history, is there a reason for that? Thanks in advance
This 100% NO. We have our rivals and Reading has theirs. I gave some Reading fans a bit of stick on the old 606 but only because I live out in Berkshire and the ‘Hoops’ thing, other than that for me Reading are a Town club and we are a London club. I think a few Royals fans have identity problems. They no longer see Oxford/Wycombe/Aldershot as rivals and want to step up a gear. They tried it with West ham 2 seasos ago and got laughed at. We have no history together and doubt we ever will.
Well, I don't think they at all meant rival in the sense "let's beat the ****** (fill in ...) out of them", as in the old days what was thought about Pompey for example, but more in the sense of recent 'rival banter' to be honest. Please don't read too much into it. Perhaps, and I suspect, it came from the younger fans who hardly knew what it was like playing against Aldershot, Swindon or Oxford having come onto the scene in the last decade, and these youngsters - although not plastics on RR - see Southampton and QPR as the local teams now, there's no-one else, apart from maybe Chelsea and Fulham. But they obviously know you from the championship as well - Warnock was always a colourful character with us - so QPR seem a better bet of being a rival than Fulham for example! But as I said, I promise that in your case there's no malice intended - that seems left only for West Ham and Pompey; and I've even been trying to build bridges with West Ham fans as well via their 'Cockney Boys Chat' forum, just about the only Hammers site where away fans are actually listened to ...
Fair post, only that the West Ham thing started way back now when Pardew walked out in 2003 to go to the Hammers and too many Royals fans couldn't take it, feeling the Royals momentum was going to be lost. Of course then Coppell came along and the premier beckoned for the first time. But instead of waving mistrust only at Pardew the fans took an even bigger swipe at West Ham, mis-placed perhaps. For the rest a good judgement. Yep, there is an identity problem for many which needs addressing. Thing is, many feel we will be not much more than a yo-yo club the next few seasons so long term rival changes are hard to guess. We are losing the three traditional rivalries now, only gets talked about in the historical section now!! For my part, I'm on quite a few forums and it's easier to talk about being colleagues because that means there's respect there apart from the obvious ambition that each is going to have for his/her team ...
Aha! so it was you. http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/scot...the-cat-mascot-kidnapped-and-dismembered.html
