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t foot baller you never saw
narrowly avoided a lung. Not only was he
strong enough to pull himself off the spike,
but he recovered from his injuries within three
months and returned to playing football.
Photo courtesy of David Downs,
Reading FC historian and Reading FC
Academy Children’s Services Officer
He played for four local semi-professional
sides in the Isthmian League, before joining
then Fourth Division Reading managed by
Charlie Hurley in late 1973, first as an amateur
before signing professional terms for a
reported £750 in early 1974.
In his very first training session for Reading –
a six-a-side game – Robin went around trying
to kick as many of the established senior
players as he could. He must have put two or
three out of the game before manager Hurley
had to call him off!
With Reading having won only twice in their
previous fourteen games, former Sunderland
hero, Hurley registered the amateur forward
to play for the club on January 23, 1974, and
gave him his first-team debut four days later in
the home game against Northampton Town.
Robin turned in an outstanding performance
in the 3-3 draw.
being scouted, but not retained, by four
professional football clubs during his
teenage years.
One match later he was offered a professional
contract, and signed on February 6. His new
salary was half what he had earned as an
asphalter.
But the player’s troubled life started in his
mid-teens when he began taking drugs.
In his first match as a professional, against
Exeter City on February 10, 1974, he was ‘sheer
magic’, scoring twice.
After school he tried his hand as a plasterer, a
van driver for a grocery firm and as a window
cleaner. He regularly stole at this time, but,
despite numerous convictions, did not go to a
detention centre until he was 16. He was
released because he suffered from asthma but
when he re-offended three months later he
was sent to Borstal where he served 14 months.
At the end of this season he joined a hippie
commune in Cornwall, neglecting to inform
Reading of his decision. He was absent
without explanation when training started for
the 1974-75 season, arriving only on the day
of a closed-doors friendly against Watford.
Despite his lack of training, he far outperformed the rest of the team!
A near-fatal accident at work in July 1972
caused him to undergo extensive surgery.
While working on a roof, a hoist rope became
stuck on the scaffold he was working on. In
attempting to free the rope he fell and landed
on a large spike. The spike went up through
one of his buttocks, through his stomach and
He continued to play well and attracted the
interest of First Division sides Sheffield United
and Arsenal. However, all clubs were put off by
his disciplinary record and off-field antics. Ô page 30
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