Reading Roars!

IT IS TIME THAT Reading were outed. Time that they emerged from the closet and told the world what the world has known for many weeks. That when the 2006-07 Barclays Premiership season kicks off in August, Reading will be playing in the top flight of English football for the first time in their 135-year history.

There. It has been said. No more self-denial, no more coyness when the dreaded P-word — promotion — is mentioned in the increasingly tedious aftermath of another Reading victory. Five months into the Championship season, the statistics do not lie.

Quite right, Mr Russell Kempson of The Times. Let us all revel in the excellence of our local side, for the Royals’ promotion will be a significant event in the rich and varied history of Reading.

Yes, you read that right. Football is such an important element of British culture that Reading FC’s swift ascendancy should be recorded alongside Huntley & Palmer’s domination of the biscuit industry in the town’s annals. Reading’s footballing cathedral, the Madejski, is like Reading Abbey - both roofless structures are architectural icons of the town. And while the former marked a glorious age hundreds of years back, the other now represents a new epoch of grandeur. Rejoice, rejoice.

(Reading defeated Coventry City 2-0, by the way, a result that leaves them unbeaten in 28 games).