Leader: Rodgers' royal opportunity to score Brownie points

Newsdesk • Published 3 Dec 2009 08:00 0 Comments

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FOR Reading football supporters, 2009 has been something of an annus horribilis.

The promise a Royals return to the golden land of the Premiership began to crumble in January when the Madejski Stadium suddenly became the place every Tom, Dick and Harry who fancied their chances could drop by and collect a point or three.

The departure of Steve Coppell, arguably the club's greatest manager, and several of the star names behind the success of the record-breaking Championship triumph and that initial, sparkling season in the top flight, inevitably threw things further off course.

Brendan Rodgers would be the first to admit that the early months of his stewardship have been far from easy and he has had to endure a fair amount of homegrown hostility, largely, one assumes, from fans whose memories don't stretch back to Elm Park and times of Fourth Division despair when crowds often barely made a quorum.

In the past few weeks we've seen signs of the green shoots of recovery, and even the home hoodoo ended at last to remove that albatross from around the club's neck. But there's still work to be done before they can be certain they won't be following in the footsteps of former Premiership contemporaries Charlton and Southampton.

However, as 2009 neared its final whistle the Royals were given an FA Cup draw to savour, against mighty Liverpool, seven times winners of the competition and multiple collectors of other assorted silverware.

The Merseysiders' household names are going through a rough patch themselves just now. What a boost it would be for the fans to start 2010 with a scalp like that.

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