Madejski Looking Forward

The Royals secured promotion to the top flight for the first time in their 135-year history yesterday, made certain by Kevin Doyle’s late equaliser.

It was good to see the lads achieve promotion even if we did have to rely somewhat on the inabilities of Leeds United and Watford to win their games.

Still, that didn?t stop John Madejski from savouring the atmosphere at the Walkers Stadium after coming home from holiday to watch Reading become Premier League.

After the game, Madejski spoke about the promotion and the future.

‘It doesn’t get any better than this,’ he said.

‘And I’m delighted for the manager, his staff, the players, the supporters and everyone else who does an honest day’s work behind the scenes because they’re the real backbone of the club.

‘But it would have been unbelievable for us not to have got promotion – we’re 14 points clear of the second-placed team, 20 clear of third team and we’ve done it with six games of the season remaining.

‘We’ve been so far ahead of the chasing pack I couldn’t believe we wouldn’t do it. So it really was a question of when we went up, not if, and we’ve already been thinking and planning about next season.’