What A Day! What A Night! What A Hangover!
One Reading fan recalls a celebratory night at Purple Turtle that was very special indeed.
In days gone by, the last day of the season when we’ve finished 17th in League One, just about surviving, would’ve gone by with very little notice or applause, but I think yesterday proved that this club is now united as one. We’ve always been a community club with a big heart that dreams big, but in recent years that has been dissolved somewhat. Now, it’s fair to say, it’s back.
Nearly 20,000 at the SCL for a lunchtime kick-off, for a game which had nothing riding on it from a Reading perspective, is nothing short of impressive. A great win in our - it has to be said - rather nice new home kit. It was a party atmosphere from the moment we got to the ground and that party lived long into the small hours. Everywhere you went in town, the shirts were being worn with pride, and everyone was proud again to say they support the club.
The scenes in Purple Turtle when the first team showed up were incredible. Purple Turtle has always been synonymous with the club, which is all the reason why it was fitting that our third shirt was styled after it, so to see the lads in there enjoying themselves with the fans as one was simply brilliant and shows how far this club has come in a season.
The players on the shoulders of fans, singing along with them and taking time out for a chat, highlights quite what has been built this season. We’ve got a great group who clearly get what this club means to so many.
Earlier in the day, my dad and I spoke about how it’s a miracle we’d even got to this point. There have been countless times when it just felt inevitable the end was coming, so to have that collective moment yesterday was as special as any promotion I’ve ever seen.
This might only be “just” a survival season, but survival this season has taken many meanings, and I for one can’t wait to see what the future holds again for this team. In 2006, it was all about the Sum of the Parts, as detailed in a fantastic book by Jon Keen, if you’ve not read it. If we can get the off-field matters sorted, there might just be a sequel that needs to be written which will be worthy of a film of its own.
Now we just need to let the ownership process run its course now, enjoy the break, get over this hangover, and be ready again in August to start the next exciting chapter of this wonderful football club.