Agony Or Ecstasy Awaits Reading – I Wouldn’t Have It Any Other Way

Sim looks ahead to the emotional turmoil of one of the most critical days in the Royals’ recent history.

So here we are: the eve of one of the biggest days in Reading Football Club’s recent history.

After months of calculations and permutations, it all comes down to this. Reading, hosting Barnsley tomorrow afternoon, need to better Leyton Orient’s result at Huddersfield Town. One way lies the tantalising pain of a ‘not quite’ season, the other lies the intoxicating possibility of the playoffs.

Agony or ecstasy, which will it be? By 5pm tomorrow we’ll have our answer.

I started writing this piece on Sunday, the day after Reading’s 2-0 victory at Bristol Rovers. The pre-match anxiety was already there - I needed an outlet. Nerves lasting a full week - relating to a game, rather than an anticipated statement from the club or EFL - and good nerves too, rather than a looming sense of dread about possible relegation? Yep, this is what it should feel like to be a football fan at this stage of the season.

Put all the ownership stuff to one side for a moment, which I’m as tired of thinking about as you are. We’ve waited too long for the enjoyable yet gut-wrenching drama of a promotion shootout with it all to play for on the final day of the season. Not since 2014, a lifetime ago, have we been in this position. Far too long indeed.

As much as Reading Football Club’s fans, players and everyone else associated with it have deserved the biggest victory - finally seeing the end of the Dai Yongge era - we’ve earned a smaller but deeply personal one too. The possibility of letting our imagination run away with the possibility that this could finally be our year. This could, at long last, be when Reading win at Wembley.

Just imagine: a full SCL, decked out in blue and white, erupting at full-time to celebrate an 11th-hour gatecrash of the playoffs. Then a packed-out away end at some unknown ground serenading the team after they’ve secured a place at Wembley. Culminating with tens of thousands of Loyal Royals descending into pure pandemonium after victory at the biggest stage in English football.

Of course, we might not get a happy ending. In all likelihood, we probably won’t. Reading might not do their part on the final day, a win for Leyton Orient could make our result redundant or the Royals may falter in the playoffs. You never know, we might even lose at Wembley for a change.

There are so many ways in which this season ends in agony. The odds, as ever, are stacked against Reading Football Club.

But they’ve been stacked against this team before. When Rob Couhig’s takeover fell apart in September. When Ruben Selles left in December. When a run of three straight defeats in January saw the Royals plunge into mid-table. When top-scorer Sam Smith was sold at the end of the winter window.

And just look at what happened next.

A dogged, determined refusal to let our season tail off. An incredible run of just two defeats in 18 matches, propelling Reading back up into the heart of the playoff battle. While other teams have capitulated under the pressure, on the eve of the final day we’re still here, still fighting and still full of hope.

Endurance has defined Reading’s season and simply refuses to be extinguished. If Leyton Orient are the unstoppable force of this playoff showdown, following a hugely impressive five wins on the bounce, the Royals’ resolve is the immovable object.

That endurance has led Reading to a truly special game. A packed-out SCL with both Championship-winning managers in attendance for the occasion, and the home end adorned in blue and white to greet one of the most likeable teams we’ve had in a long time. Days like these - the ones we know we’ll look back on in years to come, one way or the other, are the zenith of what it means to be a football fan

Either it’ll end in agony or it’ll end in ecstasy. There’s no in between.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.