A Right Old Shambles: The Damning Stats Behind One Of Reading FC’s Worst-Ever Seasons

The final whistle on Sunday confirmed Reading’s lowest finish on the Football League ladder since promotion from the old Division Two (aka League One) in 2002.

Finishing on 44 points after the draw at Cardiff, the Royals bettered (or worsed) their 2014/15 Championship campaign where the team finished 19th on 50 points. That year, Reading managed to score 48 times and concede 69, remarkably similar to the 2017/18 tallies of 48 and 70.

Furthermore, another remarkable pointer as to how lucky Reading have been to avoid relegation this year comes in the fact that they haven’t scored such a low points total and avoided the drop since 1971/72.

That Division 4 (League Two) campaign saw the Berkshire club finish 16th on 42 points, and the eagle-eyed among you will know that only two points were awarded for a win those days, making 207/18 Reading’s worst-ever season where they have nonetheless avoided relegation.

In the modern-ish era, the Royals were even relegated from Division Three (League One) in 1982/83 with a relatively staggering tally of 53 points, a year they were just one point from safety and two from the mid-table security of 17th.

Finally, Reading only won 10 league games throughout 2017/18 and only once has that figure been beaten (or worsed, again) since the Second World War broke out midway through the 1939/40 campaign, when the club had two wins from only three games played. Even in the first half of the 20th century, in the years when the league formed a resemblance of today’s, the only worse outing came in the seven-win season of 1909/10.

The worst-ever occurred in 2012/13 as only six wins were achieved en route to Premier League relegation, with ten also collected in 2007/08 and 1987/88; two seasons Reading both got relegated and played less than 46 games. In sum, it’s been a right old shambles.