46 THE FOOTBALL LEAGUE PAPER Sunday, November 21, 2010

ON THE SPOTPosition: DefenderDate of Birth: 3/3/1988Marital Status: I have agirlfriend called Emma.Former Clubs: CambridgeUnited

THE LAST...Car you bought? I’ve lit-erally just bought myself aBMW X6 so it’s my newtoy at the moment.CD you bought? I haven’tbought a CD in agesbecause I do it all throughiTunes. The last one I gotwas Taio Cruz’s latestalbum, Rockstarr.Goal you scored? Iscored one againstPortsmouth in the CarlingCup earlier this season. Itwas only a tap-in so not agreat goal, but they allcount, especially whenyou don’t score many likeme. Time you were sent off?I’ve never been sent off,so touch wood that willcontinueInjury? I sprained myankle at the end of lastseason, which meant Imissed the play-off gameswhich was annoying. Icouldn’t even tell you thelast time I was injuredbefore that. Trophy won? I won theLeague One title withLeicester City in 2009.

THE JURY’S OUT:Tea or Coffee? I don’tdrink either – hot choco-late is my favourite hotdrink.Beans on toast or pasta?Beans on toast, no ques-tion.Caribbean with the mis-sus or Magalluf with thelads? Magalluf. I’ve beena few times with myfriends and it’sgreat. Eastendersor Corrie?Eastenders. Ioften catch abit of it on aFriday night.Big Brother orX Factor? Ithas to be XFactor. I enjoywatching it ona Sunday if Ican.Megan Foxor JessicaAlba? MeganFox everytime.

TIME ADDED ON:Who did you support asa boy? Arsenal. I still lookout for their score first inthe results.Who is the best playeryou have played with?Nolberto Solano. He waswith me last year atLeicester and was a quali-ty player.Who is the loudest man-ager you have playedunder? Rob Newman atCambridge. Every time hewas in the changing roomshe was yelling and shout-ing. He was never quiet. What three words bestdescribe you? Hard-work-ing, easy-going, and confi-dent.Which newspaper do youread? The Mirror. Which TV football punditmakes you cringe? PaulMerson. The guy justdoesn’t know what he’stalking about. And who do you reallylisten to? JamieRedknapp. He seems totalk sense. Do you have any super-stitions? I always tie mylaces just before kick-off,even if it means I have tountie them first.What are your hobbiesoutside of football? Callof Duty and clay pigeonshooting.Which five people wouldyou invite round for adinner party? DavidBeckham, pictured, – he’sa legend and I think he’dbe a really interesting guyto talk to. Ian Wright, hewas a childhood hero ofmine and seems like agood laugh too. MeganFox – you’d need a bit offemale company wouldn’tyou? My best mate, Brian,because he’d be fuming ifI didn’t include him on thelist. Finally, Fizz offCoronation Street,because my mate Brianhas a soft spot for gingergirls and I think he’d like

her.

AND FINALLY...Who is the worst

dressed player atthe club? MattyFryatt. He alwaysdresses like he’sbeen to a Nextwarehouse clear-ance or some-thing.

THIS WEEK: Michael Morrison – Leicester

❚Putting the public and private lives of players

under the spotlight

READING1987-88

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READING had never won amajor trophy until theSimod Cup victory of 1988against Luton Town butboy did they break their

duck in style!The cup was won against the

odds by a Royals team on the onehand scrapping against relegationin Division Two while on the otherovercoming a host of Division Onecup opponents including BrianClough’s Nottingham Forest sidewhich included England interna-tionals Des Walker, Stuart Pearceand Neil Webb.

The unlikely win in front of Wem-bley’s twin towers was a realunderdog story with Reading evengoing 1-0 down in the final to aMick Harford header beforestorming back to win 4-1 thanks togoals from Michael Gilkes, StuartBeavon, Mick Tait and Neil Smillie.

It was a win which wingerMichael Gilkes admits would behard to repeat in today’s game. “It’svery difficult to explain to peoplewhat it was like now with it being solong ago and with so many differentchanges in football,” he says.

“People don’t realise the originalSimod Cup was organised becauseour top sides couldn’t play inEurope so they introduced a cupcompetition for the top twoleagues to play each other with thefinal at Wembley.

“We drew QPR, NottinghamForest, Oxford, Coventry, who’dwon the FA Cup the year before,and Luton – so we’d come up

as well as Sunderland’s academy.He is now a matchday commenta-tor for BBC Humberside.8 Michael Gilkes – Voted theRoyals best ever left-winger, he isnow coaching at Hungerford Townand working as a personal trainer.9 Gary Peters – Manager of Pre-ston, Exeter and most recentlyShrewsbury between 2004-2008.Now works as a football scout.10 Mick Tait – A 15-year manage-rial career has included ex-teamsHartlepool and Darlington. He isnow the boss at Conference Northside Blyth Spartans.11 Neil Smillie – Following spellsas manager of Gillingham andWycombe he now works for Nikeas an agent looking for future starsto sign to sponsorship deals. Hesigned Theo Walcott to the brandaged 14.12 Linden Jones – Took his UEFAA coaching licence before form-ing Swansea VIPs, a team forvisually impaired players. He isnow football in the community offi-cer at Swansea City.13 Stuart Beavon – Lives in theReading area and works as apainter and decorator. His sonStuart Junior plays for WycombeWanderers.14 Les Taylor – After retiring in1990 he became Under-16 coachand then Youth development offi-cer at Oxford United, a role heholds now.

MICHAEL WADE

went that day remember it reallywell because it was such a bigevent.

“I remember travelling backalong the M4 and it was covered inblue and white. Seeing everybodyhappy and jubilant was a fantasticsight and so many years laterpeople still talk about it. It wasseeing how happy it had made thefans and how important it was fromthat point of view that gives you thereal joy.”

1 Colin Bailie – His spell at Cam-bridge United came to an unhappyend under John Beck. He joinedthe Cumbrian police force. 2 Steve Richardson – After morethan 450 appearances for theRoyals he went on to coach Bas-ingstoke Town, Farnborough andCarshalton.3 Martin Hicks – Now living in theMidlands and working as a man-ager for the Post Office. He hasworked as a monitor for the F.A.4 Jerry Williams – Lives inOxfordshire and works as a self-employed financial consultant.5 Steve Francis – The formerChelsea keeper went on to playfor Huddersfield Town andNorthampton before retiring in1999. 6 Keith Curle – Has worked asNeil Warnock’s assistant at CrystalPalace and QPR as well as havingmanagerial spells at MansfieldTown, Chester City and Torquay.7 Ian Branfoot – Went on tomanage Southampton and Fulham

against all top-flight sides. It was atremendous run.

“In the league we struggled thatyear, eventually getting relegatedso the cup run was a bit of a relief.

“We also had a top result in theearly rounds of the League Cupagainst Chelsea who were flyinghigh that season and, funnilyenough, after beating Luton in thefinal on March 27 they went on tobeat Arsenal in the League Cupfinal. Arsenal had beaten Liverpoolin the final the year before so itgives you an idea of how goodLuton were and how fortunate andwell we played on the day.”

Gilkes’ pace was a constantthreat and it was his equaliser thatsparked the turnaround for Read-ing. “They scored very early andwere pinging it about. It was verydifficult for us when they had pos-session. We didn’t hold the ball aswell as they did but we were moreeffective. We had a lot of pace andpower in the side and although wewent one down we had a belief thatwe were still in the game.

“We had a bit of a gameplan anda lovely through ball from NeilSmillie was where I ran into thechannel and it was a first-timefinish. I didn’t really think about it.I just hit it early and it caughtSealey off guard. Although he got ahand to it, it went into the goal sothe feeling was as much relief asanything else.

“More than 40,000 fans camefrom Reading which was a fantasticachievement. A lot of the fans who

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SIMOD CUP WINNERS

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

HOWARD LLOYD