Reading

Here is a club that, from 1920 to the mid-1980s, spent all but a handful of seasons—and those were in the late ’20s—in the third tier. So the whole idea of Reading being a thing in English soccer is relatively new. In fact, they never made the top division until 2006, some 135 years after their founding.

Their promotion season, 2005–06, is one they sing about often. They lost only twice in 46 games, scored 99 goals, and set the record for the Football League with 106 points. When I saw them a few years back, they were playing Leicester City, who had just confirmed their own promotion to the Premier League. Reading was staying in the Championship, so naturally the Leicester people spent the afternoon singing “Going Up, Staying Down” to the tune of “Yellow Submarine.” Reading’s response was “We have the record, 106!” That record was broken last season by Birmingham City with 108.

Reading finished eighth that first year up, then did the yo-yo thing and changed divisions five times in six seasons. In 2017 they made the playoff final, where they lost to Huddersfield Town in a penalty shootout. The next two years, after being so close to the Premier League, they sank to 20th in the Championship both times, and in 2023 they finished 22nd meaning they were relegated to League One.

During the 2022–23 season, and continuing into last season, their owner was repeatedly fined, and the club docked points, for failing to pay players or the tax man on time. They barely stayed in League One, but in 2025 new ownership arrived, and they missed the playoff spots by just three points.

One other game in their history bears mention, though they won’t want to remember it. In 2012 they played Arsenal in the League Cup and led, 4-0, after 37 minutes. Arsenal stormed back, forced extra time, and scored three more in the extra 30 minutes to win it, 7–5. Thus did Reading become the first team in either Cup to score five goals and lose.

2024–25 SEASON: 7th in League One, 3rd Round FA Cup, 1st Round League Cup

2025–26 SEASON: League One (relegated in 2023)

They used to have a thing with nearby Aldershot Town, but that club went out of business, and the current phoenix version of that team is down in the National League, two levels below the Royals. Reading has had to settle for disliking Swindon Town, Wycombe Wanderers, and Oxford, the latter in part because of a bizarre plan the two sets of owners hatched in the early 1980s to merge those two clubs.

Reading FC Women are in the 2nd tier of women’s football, the Women’s Championship. They were relegated from the Women’s Super League after finishing the 2022-23 season in last place (12th). Home games are at Madejski Stadium, which they share with the men’s team.

They seem fond of “Sweet Caroline,” and they have a funny one that says: “We’re not Real Madrid / We’re not Barcelona / We are Reading FC / Madejski is our owner.”

Madejski Stadium, Reading’s home since 1998, is named for a former owner, a local businessman who got them to the top division and largely paid for the construction. Here’s Wikipedia on what it’s like: “It is an all-seater bowl stadium with a capacity of 24,161 and is located close to the M4 motorway. It is built on the site of a former household waste dump and is surrounded by methane vents.”

So it’s not exactly romantic, but it’s not all that bad. It actually has good views of the action, and you sit quite close to the pitch. Outside one end is a nice big grassy area where the away fans lounge around pregame, and the area is clean if not exciting. A longtime season ticket holder told us he missed the old stadium, then added that it was a horrible dump that smelled like stale beer and urine. This place is nice, he allowed; it just lacks character.

Away fans sit in the south end.

TOURS: Tours are offered some Sundays for £12 and must be booked ahead. For more information visit Reading’s website.

GETTING THERE: It’s three miles out from the train station, but there is a bus called the Football Express that runs to the stadium for £4 round trip. To find it, head right when you leave the station and walk across a big new courtyard to a turnaround where the buses line up.

PUBS: As you might have guessed, there is nothing out by the stadium, so have a pint in town. There’s a pub called the Three Guineas that has been designated for away fans right at the station. The nearby Greyfriar gets good marks from the beer gurus, and The Gateway is an Irish pub with sports on TV.

Over by the river, where you ought to go for a stroll anyway, look for Bel and the Dragon and the Fisherman’s Cottage, both within 20 walking minutes of the station.

GRUB: The food action in town is all along Castle Street and in the pedestrian zone, also along the redeveloped waterfront.

AROUND TOWN: After cruising the downtown and riverfront, if you want some peace and quiet, you can walk along the Kennet and Avon Canal admiring barges and boats and swans. You can also walk the Thames Path from near the station through King’s Meadow or as far as you’d like. And there’s a Museum of English Rural Life at the university.

The Reading Museum has some 7,000 items related to that biscuit company, Huntley and Palmers. Their factory in Reading was the largest biscuit factory in the world in the 19th century (this makes it even sadder that it’s gone!). The Abbey Quarter is an area of ruins related to the Reading Abbey, a major site in medieval times and the burial site of King Henry I.

Seeing a Game at Reading FC

Update: This post was written in May, 2014, and is largely unchanged. Leicester City are in the Championship, and Reading are in League One for the 2023-24 season. I have always referred to the first day of any trip to...

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