Reading FC, a club with a compelling story and a very long history in English football and now a close relationship with the Barons too (Reading FC was the club of choice for Barons GM Neil Holloway when he signed with them as a teen) is on a mission to earn their way back to the top flight.  Look for them to be among those in the tussle for a promotion spot come next May.

Established in 1871, Reading managed to earn their first season in the EPL winning the Championship with a decisive 16 point advantage over 2nd place Sheffield United in the 2005/06 season.   The Royals failed to win another EPL season last year on goal difference.  For decades Reading toiled in the lower divisions as well as the conference structure that came before entering the FA's hierarchy but did you know they nearly earned their first season in the EPL in 1994/95?  Actually, under the established rules that would have been the case for any normal season end.  To their misfortune it happened in the very year that the FA decided to trim the EPL to 20 teams which meant a change in the relegation/promotion process.  Oh, is that right?  Yes, it is.

Most fans don't remember this (if they ever really knew it to begin with) but the EPL was 22 teams for the first 3 seasons of its existence.  And, to Reading's bad luck, it just happened to be the year when the FA was going to trim the EPL to 20 that they finished the campaign in 2nd place to Boro, normally an "automatic" promotion spot.  But, that year it meant that to actually earn promotion they would also have to win a playoff despite their 2nd place finish.  Under the rules the top two spots in the Championship earn what they refer to as "automatic" promotion to the EPL.  Reading 's bad luck was that it didn't work that way in that one and only season since the EPL was created.  The one and only time that "automatic promotion" wasn't automatic caught Reading FC.

Now, here that story takes an even more disturbing nightmarish twist for Reading fans.  In that playoff they would face Bolton to determine which of them would rise to the EPL level.  In that match Reading jumped to a 2-0 advantage and it seemed nearly certain their next season would be in the top flight.  It didn't work out that way as Reading lost that match and Bolton won promotion.

It would be another decade before Reading earned their first season in the EPL and many will remember it for a very long time.  They not only won another season they actually finished their first ever EPL campaign in the top ten (8th).

Last season the Royals fortress (the beautiful Madjeski stadium) didn't hold to form as they dropped points at home far too often and were themselves relegated on goal difference after finishing tied with Fulham on 36 points.  The season began with a rousing effort in which they held Man United to a scoreless draw at Old Trafford; a match in which even neutrals would say they may have been the better side on the day.  That one was followed by another spirited, high class effort at home against Chelsea that ended in a 2-1 defeat.

For the Royals it was a match in which they probably deserved a share of the spoils but it was the first of many where the fans would see them drop points at home.  The Royals simply couldn't seem to score goals at home being handed a clean sheet by seven different clubs on their own ground including a scoreless deadlock with Blackburn .  In the end the most damaging would be seeing Fulham do the double on the Royals outscoring them 5-1 in their two matches on the season (one of them a devastating 2-0 defeat at home).  The team they would end up tied with on points come May where that goal difference would separate them from another season in the EPL.

The Royals are one of the solid sides in the Coca Cola Championship for the 2008/09 campaign.  Under the steady, unflappable hand of Steve Coppell it would be a big surprise to everyone if they were not in the run at the end to earn a promotion spot and another season in 's top flight.