Reading FC legend on Wembley memories and Steve Clarke cones

However, 10 years ago the buzz was altogether different as over 30,000 supporters were preparing for a day 127 years in the making.

It was way back in 1927 that a Reading team had last reached the last four of the prestigious FA Cup, the competition founded the same year as Reading Football Club.

A defeat to eventual winners Cardiff City at Molineux made the papers and there would be many close attempts in the years to follow, reaching quarter-finals in 2010 and 2011 under Brian McDermott.

Starting in January, Huddersfield Town, Cardiff City, Derby County and Bradford City were all beaten as Steve Clarke's side ensured the campaign would not fizzle out, despite the mid-table meandering that was on show in Championship fixtures throughout the year.

However it was April 18 2015 that Royal blue and white hoops marched down Wembley Way for a last four FA Cup meeting with the mighty Arsenal, the only side in England that the club have never beaten.

Captain on the day was homegrown defender Alex Pearce, coming to the end of his 15-year association with the football club.

Part of two quarter-final exits and Player of the Season for the 2012 Championship-winning campaign, it was to be the defender's only appearance for the club at the national stadium as he was an unused substitute in the 2011 play-off final defeat to Swansea City.

Sitting down with the Reading Chronicle a whole decade on, the Republic of Ireland international was full of pride and nostalgia when running through the memories.

"From what I remember, very early on in that season it became about the cup," Pearce explained. "We knew that we weren’t going to go down and we knew we weren’t going up, so it became a season where the league form petered out. Because our cup form was so good, the focus was on that. It was a shame for the league but in a way, it focused our energy on the cup, and we managed to go a long way in it.

"I think we should have, and could have, easily gone further than we did."

Taking a quick pause, it would be rude to gloss over the quarter-final without acknowledging one of the best atmosphere's in the history of the SCL Stadium.

After a gruelling 0-0 draw at Valley Parade, Phil Parkinson's League Two giant-killers were brought back to Berkshire on a Monday night and over 22,000 were sucked into what was meant to be a nip and tuck kind of affair.

Well, Reading had other ideas and were two up within 10 minutes. Winning 3-0 on the night, it appeared simple from the stands. But for Pearce, none of this would have been possible without the work of Clarke.

"The early goal settled everyone’s nerves and allowed us to get control," Pearce admitted. "It ended up seeming an easy night, but it is never as easy as it looks, you have to put the work in.

"I remember the preparations from Steve Clarke before the away game he was so detailed. The pitch was awful, there was no grass, and it was really bobbly. I remember him laying out a set of cones and us training on a set of cones to help us prepare for the bobbly pitch. It was an interesting week that he did it for, but it set us up for the game ahead. That was where we won the tie, I think. Going to Bradford and getting the draw, because it was a tough place to go even though they were in a lower league than us."

From that moment on, the form in the Championship was very much out the window for supporters and the clamber for tickets was on. Sometimes over-awing for supporters, it must have been ten times harder for players to remain focused with such a game on the horizon.

"When you’re approaching a game of that magnitude, you want to get all those bits out of the way- tickets and everything. The focus was firmly on the game, all the tickets were taken care of early, and the preparation was really good. We stayed in one of the best hotels in London close to the game and I remember feeling really good turning up on the day.

"I remember going into the captain’s room and looking across at Laurent Koscielny and I remember him looking really tired. It was as if he was thinking ‘oh we’re playing against Reading.’ It was not a glamour tie for them, just another game, but it was our cup final. I remember thinking before the game that we could have a chance just by looking at how he was in the captain’s room. If that’s what their team were about, we could have a chance, and it turned out to be that way.

"They had a real off day and didn’t play well. We were outstanding. It was a very bold move to play two up front, we played 442 with Jamie Mackie up top with Pavel Pogrebnyak, and we were very good. Defensively we were very resolute and because we had two strikers, we caused some problems.

"It was a real proud moment for me, leading the team out at Wembley as captain. It is one I look back on with fond memories."

For those that were not at Wembley that day, or have forgotten in the years since, it was a blisteringly hot day for the unusual kick-off time of 5.15pm, meaning a relatively late finish after more than two hours of action.

Arsene Wenger's side were filled with stars, the likes of Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and Theo Walcott, but it took until the end of the first-half for Ozil and Sanchez to combine and open the scoring.

Barely 10 minutes had gone in the second period before ecstasy for those in blue and white as Garath McCleary bundled a cross marginally over the line, despite the best efforts of Wojciech Szczęsny in the Gunners' net.

 Gabriel came close for the eventual winners, heading off the bar, while Reading could have snuck into the lead when Pavel Pogrebnyak and Jamie Mackie went on a charge, ultimately cut short when making the wrong passing option.

Looking set for penalty kicks, heartache hit the Royals as Sanchez's second squirmed under the imperious Adam Federici.

As a 15-year-old sat in the gods at Wembley, it was truly gutting, feeling we had a chance to win the famous trophy with Liverpool knocked out by Aston Villa in the other semi-final.

As it turns out, it was not just a future journalist who thought that trudging away from the capital down the M4.

"The way the game went I felt that if we did take it to penalties we would win. We would have played Aston Villa in the final and that’s a team we thought we could turn over and possibly won the cup. We have to be grateful that we got to a semi-final, the way the game panned out it was a shame we couldn’t go all the way.

"To take a team like Arsenal to extra-time was a great achievement in itself. As a player, those moments don’t come along very often. I never reached a semi-final before that day or since so it was one of those where we had to make the most of it. We gave a proud performance, and we were unlucky in the end."

Reading lost three successive matches after the semi-final, beating Derby County 3-0 on the final day, and slumped to a 19th place finish. However for everyone connected to the club at the time, it will forever be a season which is looked back upon with pride...and certainly a hint of 'what if.'