Anatomy of a modern day happening

On the 11th May 2008 the team I support, Reading FC, got relegated from the English Premier League. You had to be there (in body or in spirit) to realise what a great day that was. We won the game 4 goals to nil, but it could easily have been more. We played fantastic football, as indeed we had for many games during the season - certainly not all of them, but it did include our first victory against the mighty Liverpool in all our 136 year history.

So, whilst many clubs would have been sad and depressed at the prospect of relegation we were rather looking forward to another season where we stood a chance - actually quite a good chance - that we'd win a good share of games. And then reality started to dawn, what if we lost our best players; more importantly what if we lost our manager, Steve Coppell. At the time of writing only Hereford United, Accrington Stanley and Leyton Orient can boast longer serving English Managers and relegation is often a time to go.

Fear set in. As soon as we thought about it we sent a letter of support into the club asking for him to stay. Emotion was running high - if we felt this way, maybe others felt this way also? The easiest way to find out these days is to check the fan forums on the internet. For Reading FC this means the HobNob Anyone? (HNA) website. [Fabulous name for the site, kudos to whomever named it. ] And sure enough, there was active discussion on there from likeminded supporters. What transpired next seems (to me) a beacon of light for humanity in what often seems a murky world.

The relevant thread began with a post (by "Royal Yank") called FAO Sir Steve (later abbreviated to SSC, as in Sir Steve Coppell - not knighted in reality, but in our minds he should be, and the Man Ure fans always refer to their manager as SAF) the same day as the game - 11th May at 19:48: "Isn't it sad all this talk of "thanks for the memories", and who will be the "new manager"? - well my message to you SSC is quite simple: Please stay." In the same thread, at 10:19 the following day "Geekins" the first mention is made of the concept of community action: "I think we should get a load of us down to the training ground so he knows how much we want him here and a boost for the players as well."


By 16:42 "The 17 bus" created a thread on HNA called Coppell's Parking Space with a photo of the lamppost with the first sign.
At 16:56 "Geekins" urged on community action: "Let's get a massive bunch of us up there! I'm coming too!" At 17:16 "Stranded" showed how media savvy the world is becoming "If people really want to do this then it needs to get as much press as possible, so tomorrow at the earliest and contact the EP, Sky Sports News etc.....and get as many people to show up as you can to make it..." and at 17:21 "Row Z" made the leap from the HNA forum activity to the Facebook community: "Can we agree a time please? A Facebook Event will be set up for this as well."

And at 17:45 "Reading Fan Man" reported a Facebook group had been set up called Save Steve Coppell and "Alex Everson" posted a discussion topic asking for ideas : "What ideas do people have to raise awareness for the need for Steve Coppell to stay at Reading? Some ideas which have been mooted so far have included turning up at his parking spot, calling media to it, petitions. Anything has to be good, so any ideas need to be carried out ASAP!" and by 20:06 Alex repeated "AbovetheI"'s killer idea (posted on HNA at 19:02) "Let's all take 1 piece of a4, write whatever on it and stick it to that lamp post [by Steve Coppell's parking space] Keep it simple, each with our name and own little message of support. How does that sound? " At 17:50 "Row Z" told the HNA crowd about the event held at 7pm on 13th May - and the rest will live on in Royals history for many years to come. See if you can spot me in the clip :)



[Interesting side note on Facebook timestamps - it seems Discussion Board postings are always at PST, whereas the Wall and Events seem to be local time stamps]

And so it came to pass that Steve decided to stay, and those of us who took part are grateful to those who stimulated it all to happen - my emotions summed up by "2 world wars, 1 world cup" who wrote the following post:

"This is to say an official thank you and well done to the several hundred people here, who, at the drop of a hat went out in force to support and welcome Coppell to stay. Well done 17 bus et al for the idea, and everyone else who took part and represented people like me who were at work and/or didn't even know about it. Clearly had a lot to do with Coppell's decision. You may not realise it now, but this one act of sheer passionate support may well have changed the direction of RFC forever. After being so vocal about our horrendous home support, which I still maintain shows we do not belong anywhere near the Premiership, you guys have put back a lot of my faith in Reading fans and I'm delighted the flame of Elm Park's spirit lives. After such a showing I'm beginning to think we certainly do deserve to fight for the Prem. My respect and my thanks to real Reading fans everywhere. Once again proud to be a Reading lad. READING TILL I DIE."

And in the true tradition of the modern age, the commemorative T-Shirt.