Reading legend on Royals' record-breaking season

A hero of Reading's record-breaking promotion to the Premier League is to be quizzed by fans about the club's stunning 2005/06 season.

Glen Little will answer questions about his career at a bar he used to avoid as a player because it was frequented by former chairman John Madejski.

He said it was "hard to say" what drove the Royals to win the Championship in such emphatic style in 2006 other than confidence and belief.

Little told BBC Radio Berkshire he was lured to Reading by the prospect of potentially playing in the Premier League and for his former childhood hero, Steve Coppell.

"We lost the first game of the season against Plymouth and you're thinking: 'Oh, here we go, we'll do well to finish mid-table,'" he said.

"Thirty-three games unbeaten later, well clear, with one foot in the Premier League and then the aim was to win the league and then break Sunderland's points total."

Reading won a record-breaking 106 points, lost just two league games and secured promotion in March 2006 at Leicester.

Little said the foundations for success were initially built by former manager Alan Pardew but then completed by Coppell, who arrived in October 2003 and added, amongst others, strikers Kevin Doyle, Dave Kitson and Leroy Lita.

"It was built over those three years really. It all came together.

"We had players who could score. We had a good goalkeeper, a good defence and it all was just the perfect storm."

Injury hampered Little's second season with Reading in the Premier League in 2007/08 and the Royals were relegated back to the Championship.

"I wish I had got to the Premier League sooner but that's football – you have your good times, you have your bad times. You can't have it your own way," Little added.

Nearly two decades later, Little said while the current situation with Reading remains "worrying", he has always felt positive about the club's long-term future.

"This is Reading. We've got a lovely training ground, we've got a lovely ground, big support. I always felt that would help," he added.

"But the longer this goes on without the takeover, you're selling players just to get through the next couple of months. It's a worry.

"I just hope like everybody else that we can get an owner in who's ambitious, who can take the club forward sooner rather than later."

Little will watch Reading at home on Saturday as they take on League One's runaway leaders Birmingham, ahead of his sold-out turn at the town's Purple Turtle bar on Sunday.

"I lived in Reading for years but I have never actually been so it's my first time," he said.

"I used to try to avoid it because I know that's where the chairman went – but it's safe to go now!"

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