This Week in Football History: Tottenham Hotspur 6-4 Reading

Dimitar Berbatov notched four of Spurs' goals against Reading

In today's edition of This Week in Football History, Adrian North recounts the tale of Reading's unfortunate battering at the hands Spurs, not three months after a similarly-sized reversal at Fratton Park...

December 29, 2007, White Hart Lane - Tottenham 6-4 Reading

The 2007/2008 season is best remembered as the first genuine three-horse race since the arrival of Roman Abramovich in 2004, Fulham's great escape from the certain doom of relegation, and the miserable tally of just 11 points racked up by Paul Jewell's Derby County - an unfortunate record that one assumes will stand for quite some time.  

Fulham's incredible escape saw them win all three of their final matches, against City, Birmingham and Portsmouth, and in their place relegate Steve Coppell's Reading, who seemingly suffered from one of the worst 'second season syndromes' in recent memory, dropping 10 places between the summers of '07 and '08, and finding themselves back in the Championship the following August.  

To go along with the agony of relegation endured by many of those from Berkshire, Reading set perhaps a more unwelcome and unbreakable record than Derby's measly 11 points.  

Reading scored four goals in a game on two separate occasions and lost both times.  

On September 29, 2007, Reading made the short trip to Portsmouth and shared 11 goals in a 7-4 loss in the highest scoring and perhaps most bizarre game the Premier League has seen. Benjani (remember him?) scored a hat-trick, David James and Marcus Hahnemann may as well have stood behind their respective goals such was their ineffectiveness (James did save a penalty as a measure of redemption) and once the score reached 4-2 it seemed every goal from then on was some jammy deflection.  

Three months later, on December 29, 2007, Reading went to north London, found themselves 4-3 up with 15 minutes to play before The Royals spectacularly collapsed in seven late second-half minutes. Dimitar Berbatov scored four for Spurs, and Dave Kitson grabbed a couple of Reading's strikes. 

Where the Portsmouth game was a debacle of lucky deflections and dodgy penalties, the 6-4 loss to Spurs wouldn't have looked out of place in the 1954 World Cup. The midfield was a largely pointless area of pristine grass and each goalmouth resembled scenes plucked straight from a Michael Bay flick.  

You know all those times when you say "That game really could have ended 6-4" - Well, this was that one time a game did end up with such a ludicrous scoreline.