My sporting
woe happened in 2006 when my team (Reading) were promoted to the top flight with a record breaking 106 points, which still stands today. These events are always great for a town for many reasons but for me it was switching on MOTD and seeing my team do battle with some of the biggest clubs in the world and beating some of them. First MOTD of the season and I tune in, now most of the pundits thought we were going to be up against it for that season and they had a point but one thatched headed naysayer refused to even talk about us and dismissed our chances with a mere flick of his hand. Hmmm I thought what have we ever done to upset Mark Lawrenson? It was a mystery and the mystery deepened as the season went on, even with success coming our way he still refused to give us any kind of credit, even with the likes of Hansen et al singing our praises about what we had acheieved on a shoe string budget

So in my hunt to solve this mystery I went online, as I often do and entered Lawrenson and Reading into Google, what it came up with was a great story from the 70's that pretty much solved the mystery for me. Now every club has their legends and one of our legends that people still talk about to this day was a guy called Robin Friday, think George Best, Paul Gascoigne and Tony Adams rolled into one and even then it's not the half of it, the guy was an animal but insanely talented, on many a match day he could be found in the pubs and dragged out so they could get him on by half time, that's how good he was, he could get pissed out of his face and still turn a game on its head, as he often did....Anyway one year we faced Brighton in a cup game and guess who their centre half was?...Yep you guessed it, no less than Mark Lawrenson, who even back then was known for his fierce tackling and had been tasked with the job of marking our very own Robin Friday, after about 4 or 5 scything tackles Friday had decided he'd had enough and turned around and kicked Lawrenson straight in his moustache cladded face. Even though football was fairly fierce in those days it was still enough to get him a straight red card....Now you would have thought that this was enough to piss Lawrenson off to hold a grudge for many years but it wasn't this. Robin Friday in his ultimate wisdom went to the away dressing room, found Lawrenson's kit back and proceeded to turn one out in his kit bag!!!!! For that alone he will always be a legend in my eyes. Being a Reading lad I also know his daughter (lovely girl) but I’d never bring him up, as he died at 38 of a heart attack before she even knew him, sadly beer wasn’t his only vice.

I’ve only mentioned one story here but there are loads. Cardiff fans will also remember Friday as one of their legends as well –
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Friday
(bROKEN aRROW PUA HVI Master, Fri 20 Apr 2012, 13:31, 4 replies)

Yep, wasted talent...
...love the first image of him that comes up in google images...
( TheMattInAHat has a particular... odour..., Fri 20 Apr 2012, 13:59, closed)

Just tried it
Hahaha! Yeah his famous two fingered salute, Super Furry Animals used this on one of their album covers. I'm guessing their cardiff fans.
(bROKEN aRROW PUA HVI Master, Fri 20 Apr 2012, 14:01, closed)

Ah Lawro
I'm a Brighton fan and even I can't stand him. Shitting in his bag was entirely appropriate.
( evil_andy Stick stick stick stick sticky sticky stick stick, Fri 20 Apr 2012, 20:12, closed)

Unlucky
on just missing out this season, you deserved a bit more against us but you have a good squad there, that I predict good things from next time out....Good manager too.
(bROKEN aRROW PUA HVI Master, Mon 23 Apr 2012, 9:24, closed)