In celebration of Reading Football Club's 150th anniversary, The Reading Chronicle spoke with 15 figures from the Reading community, past and present, to find out above all one thing: What makes Reading FC special?
Ivar Ingimarsson
Defender
2003-2011
Appearances: 281
I think what makes a football club special is individual. For me, it was arriving at the club at the time I did, the time and part of my career. Me and my wife moved there without two children and when we moved away from Reading we had two children! So for me, having the best football years of my career and having two children…combined, that’s my Reading time!
We had about eight very good years there and like I said both of our children were born either at Frimley Park Hospital or the Royal Berkshire Hospital. We were young people when we moved there and when we arrived at the club you had the feeling that something good was going to happen. And it did! Both on and off the pitch. This period of life is very much marked by these two things, both obviously very good things!
It’s important that people feel well off the pitch as well as on it. Because most of the time you’re off the pitch and if you don’t feel well there, then it’s difficult for you to improve and play well. In our case, we found a very good home in a little town just outside Reading, close to the training ground, with a good school for our kids.
We very much enjoyed the life. And if you enjoy the life you are much more likely to play well and for us, it fitted very well together. And also with the club. I got along very well with people around the club, all the staff at the stadium and training ground. And when you came to training or to games, these were helpful good people which made the environment very good. That was also a big part of why I think Reading was very successful during this period.
To play and do well in the Championship and then be promoted in the way we did, all of this came together. Everybody has to be pulling in the same direction, the atmosphere at the ground has to be right, and it was definitely that kind of period that I was lucky to have there.
The whole family is obviously Reading fans! They (the kids) all support their own teams as well both in Iceland and in England but we always look out for Reading’s results and to see how things are going. Even if my daughter was young at the time they have their souvenirs from my time at Reading - it was a big part of their growing up.
Stand-out memory:
It’s not easy to pick from eight years at the club! But when you ask it, what pops out is the first game in the Premier League. We obviously got promoted in the way we did and had lots of nice highlights but I always remember the football experts talking about Reading and how we were going to be relegated in our first year…how Coppell and his staff would have to buy a totally new squad - which he didn’t. We added good players but the core of the team was still there.
I remember everyone was very focused on proving people wrong. And then going on the pitch against Middlesbrough and being 2-0 down, I’m sure there was some sort of doubt around the stadium and even on the pitch! Then obviously the feeling of turning it around and knowing ‘okay, we can actually do this!’ That was very important for the rest of the season.
Dave Kitson scored the first goal and then we got going. Beating them 3-2 after being 2-0 down was brilliant and it a little bit shut down those negative voices and that was the game that set us up for the season.
Don’t get me wrong, in the mind of every player if they’re going on the pitch for the first time, there is always a little bit of doubt. And that’s why it was so important to get the win, important to get the goals. For three of our players to get goals, for us to come back like that, it definitely set us up…to get that win so quickly set us up for the season. So I would definitely say that’s one of the big highlights from my time.
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