Whitley and it’s connection to Football
Today our Under 23s will make history by becoming the first Reading City Football Club side to play a competitive game at the John Madejski Academy.
Our Under 23s usually play their home matches at the Atrium Health Club, next to the Rivermoor Stadium here in RG30 but due to last weekend’s unseasonable weather, the pitch unfortunately isn’t playable and therefore we move to RG2.
We’d like to thank our Club Partner, John Madejski Academy for allowing us the use of their facilities.
Whitley has a long and proud history within local football and we’re proud to add that today, to mark this historic event we decided to take a look at Whitley’s long and proud connection to the beautiful game.
Whitley is hailed by many as the centre of football in Reading, as it’s home to not only the John Madejski Academy but Reading Football Club. However, Whitley’s links to the local football scene go far deeper as for 67 years Rabson Rovers dominated Reading’s Saturday League scene before relegation from the Senior League sadly saw them fold in 2009.
Whilst Reading City are known as ‘The Pride of Reading’, Rabsons Rovers were known as ‘The Pride of South Reading’ and were much more than a football club, seen instead as a key community organisation running cricket, badminton and table tennis teams along with fishing competitions, day trips and holidays.
Professional Footballer Liam Bridcutt who started his career in the youth ranks at Chelsea, before going on to play for Yeovil Town, Watford, Stockport County, Brighton & Hove Albion, Sunderland, Leeds United, Nottingham Forest, Bolton Wanderers, Lincoln City and Blackpool hails from Whitley.
The John Madejski Academy Alumni also includes the likes of Lioness Fran Kirby and Brentford’s Shandon Baptiste.
Other Notable players to hail from Whitley include Liam Ferdinand who currently plays for Bracknell but was part of the Thatcham Town side who won the FA Vase at Wembley in 2017/18 as well as the Binfield Side who reached the FA Vase Final in 2020/21. Liam has also had the honour of representing his country having been called up for England ‘C’ Duties and played in the Falkland Islands in November 2018.
Liam isn’t the only Whitley resident to have an FA Vase Winners Medal as Shane Cooper-Clark not only played for Thatcham Town in the FA Vase Final, but scored the only goal of the game to see the Kingfishers lift the trophy.
Football continues to be a big part of the community in Whitley with number of teams operating in the area such as South Reading FC, Eldon Celtic.
Admission for today’s game is free and we’d love to see the local community come along and enjoy the football.
As a non-profitable, grassroots club if you’d like to leave a donation to help raise vital funds it would be most appreciated, you can do so here.