Looking back – 10 years since Reading FC were promoted

Back then McDermott’s main role was chief scout, a job that took him all over the globe in the search of new talent.

So when Steve Coppell’s all-conquering side of a decade ago drew 1-1 at Leicester City to secure promotion to the Premier League for the first time in the club’s history, McDermott was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, he was returning from a match at Brighton & Hove Albion, though he admits when he heard the news confirming Royals’ promotion it was still a special moment.

“I remember exactly where I was,” he recalled. “I was leaving Brighton after a game at Withdean Stadium when I had to stop the car to take it all in.

“I pulled over and had two minutes on my own in a layby listening to the radio just as we’d won promotion and thinking ‘wow, that was a good season.’ Then I went home.

“I hardly saw a Reading game that season. I remember Steve took me to the Cardiff City game at Ninian Park on my birthday on April 8 and we won 5-2 (check) after being two or three-nil up.

“Obviously I would go on all the pre-season trips but very rarely would I watch our team because I was always scouting the opposition.

“However, I remember the season very well. It was a fun time. There were some real characters about and the players were fabulous. We really enjoyed ourselves.

“We didn’t keep going on about what we’re going to achieve, we were just having fun and a good time.”

To call it a ‘good time’ is a typical McDermott understatement. That unforgettable 2005/06 season saw Reading finish with a staggering 106 points, a tally that has not be beaten since and may never will.

Promotion was achieved almost 10 years ago to the day on March 25 with a Kevin Doyle equaliser in a 1-1 draw at Leicester. But as McDermott admits, few supporters would have banked on Reading going up after a 2-1 home defeat to Plymouth Argyle on the opening day.

When asked at what point he thought Reading would achieve something special, McDermott confessed: “It certainly wasn’t after the first game against Plymouth. I can remember the angst after that losing that game.

“We used to do this thing where we’d talk about how many points we thought we’d get in a series of six games.

“I think the target was 14 points which we put on the notice board. When I came in on the Monday morning after losing to Plymouth I sat down with Steve and he told me take it down.

“So I took it down but I didn’t tear it up, I put it in my drawer. We ended up winning the next five and finishing that spell with 15 points.

“So every time we put those things up I would come in on a Monday and stuff it in my drawer. Nobody knew, it was just my thing.”

Reading found their groove over the months that followed and went on a staggering 32-match unbeaten run that took them to the top of the table.

Kevin Doyle and Dave Kitson were banging in the goals with Glen Little, Bobby Convey, James Harper and Steve Sidwell their regular supply line.

The defence of Graeme Murty, Ibrahima Sonko, Ivar Ingimarsson and Nicky Shorey in front of keeper Marcus Hahnemann was rock-solid and rarely changed throughout the campaign.

Royals also boasted outstanding back-up from the bench with a teenage Shane Long, Leroy Lita, John Oster and Stephen Hunt regular contributors to the team’s unrivalled success.

And all of it was achieved, as McDermott points out, with very little outlay.

“We couldn’t have been accused of spending a lot of money that year,” he stressed. “Shane Long and Kevin Doyle were about 120 grand (euros) between them.

“Look back at Kevin’s career. He’s a great man and is playing at Colorado Rapids now. I still keep in contact with him. I also had dinner with Shane the other week and what a great person and a great players he’s turned out to be.

“I told Shane that I think he’s one of the best strikers around and that he could play for anybody. I genuinely believe that. What he did for Reading was fantastic.

“They were all top players – Dave Kitson, Steve Sidwell, James Harper, Ivar Ingimarsson, Ibrahima Sonko, – the combinations and partnerships were excellent.

“In any good team you need partnerships like Marcus Hahnemann with those two centre-halves (Ingimarsson and Sonko), Murty and Little on the right, Shorey and Convey on the left with Hunt and Oster coming off the bench.

“All those combinations were right. That was the best team the Championship has ever seen.

"People have tried to replicate that, but nobody has managed to do it.

“It was a just a really good time and I thoroughly enjoyed working for Steve Coppell, who’s a top guy, and all the coaches and players as well.

“They will be remembered forever at Reading.”