| Club: | Reading |
| Season: | 1994–95 |
| Manager: | Mark McGhee (until 14 December) Mick Gooding & Jimmy Quinn (player-managers from 4 January) |
| Chairman: | John Madejski |
| Stadium: | Elm Park |
| League: | First Division |
| League Result: | 2nd (qualified for play-offs) |
| Cup1: | Play-offs |
| Cup1 Result: | Runners-up vs Bolton Wanderers |
| Cup2: | FA Cup |
| Cup2 Result: | Third round vs Oldham Athletic |
| Cup3: | League Cup |
| Cup3 Result: | Second round vs Derby County |
| League Topscorer: | Stuart Lovell (11) |
| Season Topscorer: | Stuart Lovell (14) |
| Pattern La1: | _blue_hoops |
| Pattern B1: | _bluehoops3 |
| Pattern Ra1: | _blue_hoops |
| Pattern So1: | _blueline |
| Prevseason: | 1993–94 |
| Nextseason: | 1995–96 |
During the 1994–95 English football season, Reading F.C. competed in the Football League First Division, following promotion from the Second Division the previous season.
Mark McGhee left Reading in December to take over at Leicester City. Players Jimmy Quinn, Mick Gooding, Ady Williams and Jeff Hopkins acted as caretakers until January, when Quinn and Gooding were named as full-time player-managers. The inexperienced duo led Reading to second in the First Division. In any other season this would have been enough for promotion to the Premier League, but due to restructuring of the league, only two teams would be awarded promotion, and therefore Reading entered the play-offs.
After beating Tranmere Rovers 3–1 on aggregate (3–1 and 0–0 over two legs) they travelled to Wembley to face Bolton Wanderers. Reading were 2–0 up within 12 minutes and appeared certain to be playing top-flight football for the first time in their history next season, but Bolton fought back to score twice in the last 15 minutes to take the game to extra time. Bolton scored twice more in extra time to lead 4–2. Although player-manager Quinn, on as a second-half substitute, pulled one back in the 119th minute, Bolton held on to win and sealed promotion to the Premier League at Reading's expense. Following the final defeat, it would be eleven years before Reading finally experienced top-flight football.
| Name | Nationality | Position | Date of birth (Age[1]) | Signed from | Signed in | Contract ends | Apps. | Goals | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goalkeepers | ||||||||||
| Shaka Hislop | GK | 1995 5, df=yes | Howard Bison | 1992 | 126 | 0 | ||||
| Simon Sheppard | GK | 1995 5, df=yes | Watford | 1994 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Defenders | ||||||||||
| Andy Bernal |  | DF | 1995 5, df=yes | Sydney Olympic | 1994 | 40 | 0 | |||
| Keith McPherson | DF | 1995 5, df=yes | Northampton Town | 1990 | ||||||
| Adi Viveash | DF | 1995 5, df=yes | loan from Swindon Town | 1994 | 1995 | 12 | 1 | |||
| Dylan Kerr |  | DF | 1995 5, df=yes | Leeds United | 1993 | 95 | 3 | |||
| Dariusz Wdowczyk |  | DF | 1995 5, df=yes | Celtic | 1994 | 44 | 0 | |||
| Jeff Hopkins | DF | 1995 5, df=yes | Bristol Rovers | 1992 | 122 | 3 | ||||
| Ady Williams | DF | 1995 5, df=yes | Trainee | 1989 | ||||||
| Midfielders | ||||||||||
| David Bass | MF | 1995 5, df=yes | Trainee | 1992 | 9 | 0 | ||||
| Michael Gilkes | MF | 1995 5, df=yes | Leicester City | 1984 | ||||||
| MF | 1995 5, df=yes | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 1989 | |||||||
| Paul Holsgrove | MF | 1995 5, df=yes | Millwall | 1994 | 29 | 4 | ||||
| Tommy Jones | MF | 1995 5, df=yes | Swindon Town | 1992 | 66 | 2 | ||||
| Jamie Lambert | MF | 1995 5, df=yes | Trainee | 1992 | 54 | 5 | ||||
| Mick Murphy | MF | 1995 5, df=yes | Trainee | 1994 | 1 | 0 | ||||
| Simon Osborn | MF | 1995 5, df=yes | Crystal Palace | 1994 | 39 | 5 | ||||
| Phil Parkinson | MF | 1995 5, df=yes | Bury | 1992 | 133 | 9 | ||||
| Scott Taylor | MF | 1995 5, df=yes | Trainee | 1989 | ||||||
| Derek Simpson | MF | 1995 5, df=yes | Trainee | 1994 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Forwards | ||||||||||
| Stuart Lovell | | FW | 1995 5, df=yes | Trainee | 1990 | |||||
| Lea Barkus | FW | 1995 5, df=yes | Trainee | 1991 | 17 | 0 | ||||
| Alan Carey | FW | 1995 5, df=yes | Trainee | 1994 | 3 | 0 | ||||
| Uwe Hartenberger | FW | 1995 5, df=yes | KFC Uerdingen 05 | 1993 | 29 | 5 | ||||
| FW | 1995 5, df=yes | Bournemouth | 1992 | 148 | 73 | |||||
| Lee Nogan | FW | 1995 5, df=yes | Watford | 1995 | 23 | 12 | ||||
| Out on loan | ||||||||||
| Left during the season | ||||||||||
| Darren Barnard | DF | 1995 5, df=yes | loan from Chelsea | 1994 | 1994 | 4 | 0 | |||
| Date | Position | Nationality | Name | From | Fee | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summer 1994 | GK | Simon Sheppard | Watford | ||||
| Summer 1994 | DF | | Andy Bernal | Sydney Olympic | £30,000 | [2] | |
| Summer 1994 | DF | | Dariusz Wdowczyk | Celtic | |||
| Summer 1994 | MF | Paul Holsgrove | Millwall | ||||
| Summer 1994 | MF | Simon Osborn | Crystal Palace | £90,000 | [3] | ||
| 12 January 1995 | FW | Lee Nogan | Watford | £250,000 | [4] |
| Date from | Position | Nationality | Name | From | Date to | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summer 1994 | DF | Darren Barnard | Chelsea | ||||
| Summer 1994 | DF | Adi Viveash | Swindon Town | Summer 1995 |
See main article: 1995 Football League First Division play-off Final.
| Bolton Wanderers: | ||||
| GK | 1 | |||
| DF | 2 | |||
| DF | 3 | Jimmy Phillips | ||
| DF | 5 | |||
| DF | 6 | Alan Stubbs | ||
| MF | 7 | |||
| MF | 4 |  Jason McAteer | ||
| MF | 10 |  Mixu Paatelainen | ||
| MF | 11 | Alan Thompson | ||
| FW | 8 | |||
| FW | 9 | John McGinlay | ||
| Substitutes: | ||||
| GK | 12 | Peter Shilton | ||
| DF | 14 | John Dreyer | ||
| FW | 15 | |||
| Manager: | ||||
| Bruce Rioch | ||||
| Reading: | ||||
| GK | 1 | Shaka Hislop | ||
| RWB | 2 | |||
| DF | 4 | |||
| DF | 6 | Dariusz Wdowczyk | ||
| DF | 5 | Ady Williams | ||
| LWB | 3 | Michael Gilkes | ||
| MF | 8 | Mick Gooding | ||
| MF | 7 | Simon Osborn | ||
| MF | 11 | Scott Taylor | ||
| FW | 9 | |||
| FW | 10 | Stuart Lovell | ||
| Substitutes: | ||||
| GK | 15 | Simon Sheppard | ||
| DF | 14 | |||
| FW | 12 | |||
| Manager: | ||||
| Jimmy Quinn & Mick Gooding | ||||
MATCH RULES
|
See main article: 1994–95 FA Cup.
See main article: 1994–95 Football League Cup.
|-|colspan="14"|Players who appeared for Reading but left during the season:|}
| width=60 | Place | width=60 | Position | width=60 | Nation | width=150 | Name | width=150 | First Division | width=100 | Playoffs | width=100 | FA Cup | width=100 | League Cup | width=80 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | FW | | Stuart Lovell | 11 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 14 | |||||||||
| 2 | FW | Lee Nogan | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 12 | ||||||||||
| 3 | FW | Jimmy Quinn | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 10 | ||||||||||
| 4 | MF | Scott Taylor | 8 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 9 | ||||||||||
| 5 | MF | Michael Gilkes | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | ||||||||||
| 6 | MF | Simon Osborn | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | ||||||||||
| 7 | MF | Paul Holsgrove | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | ||||||||||
| 8 | DF | Ady Williams | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | ||||||||||
| 9 | FW | Uwe Hartenberger | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||||||||||
| Own goal | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||||||||||||
| 11 | MF | Tom Jones | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||||||||||
| MF | Jamie Lambert | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||||||||||
| DF | | Dylan Kerr | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||||||||||
| TOTALS | 58 | 6 | 1 | 7 | 72 | ||||||||||||
Reading's kit for the 1994–95 was manufactured by Pelada, and the main sponsor was Auto Trader.