62 Facts About Robin Friday

Robin Friday was an English footballer who played professionally as a forward for Reading and Cardiff City during a career that lasted four years in the mid-1970s.

Robin Friday has been voted Reading's best ever player three times.

Robin Friday entered the Reading FC 'Hall of Fame' in 2022.

Robin Friday travelled to join his new team by train without a valid ticket and had to be bailed by the Cardiff manager Jimmy Andrews before he signed for the club.

Robin Friday performed strongly on his debut, but afterwards his form declined and his personal life caused him to repeatedly miss matches altogether.

Robin Friday died in Acton in 1990, aged 38, after suffering a heart attack.

The strongest aspects of Robin Friday's game were his ball skills, footballing intelligence and physical and mental strength.

Robin Friday and his twin brother, Tony, were born on 27 July 1952 in Acton, west London.

Around the age of ten, Robin Friday possessed notable ball-skills, and according to his father could flick an orange up onto his neck, balance it and then let it roll it back down his body and catch it on his foot.

Robin Friday was scouted by numerous London sides during his teenage years, joining Crystal Palace's school of excellence at 12 or 13, then moving on to Queens Park Rangers aged 13 and then to Chelsea, with whom he attended the 1967 FA Cup Final; as one of the club's youth players, he was part of the team's official party.

Around this time Robin Friday became interested in music, dancing and attending concerts; he had a talent for drawing, but suddenly abandoned this interest at 15.

Robin Friday became more outgoing than his brother and started taking drugs in his mid-teens.

Robin Friday left school at 15, a year before Tony, and began training as a plasterer.

Robin Friday lasted two months as a plasterer before moving on to become first a van driver for a grocery firm, then a window cleaner.

Robin Friday regularly stole by this time, but despite numerous convictions, did not go to a detention centre until he was 16.

Robin Friday did not take his marital commitments seriously and continued to womanise, drink heavily and take narcotics.

Many of his new teammates were asphalters from east London, and Robin Friday soon joined them in that trade.

Robin Friday made his debut for Walthamstow on 27 March 1971, against Bromley, coming off the bench to set up Walthamstow's equaliser.

Robin Friday joined west London club Hayes in December 1971 after scoring twice against them in an Isthmian League match.

Robin Friday was known at Hayes for his excessive drinking, and on one occasion the team started a match a player short because Robin Friday had not turned up.

The opposition paid him little attention and Robin Friday scored a late winning goal.

Robin Friday had scored 46 goals in 67 appearances for Hayes over his two spells there, but during his three Isthmian League seasons had been sent off seven times.

Robin Friday signed as an amateur, meaning that although he would be contracted to Reading he would be able to continue appearing for Hayes and working as an asphalter in London; he would train part-time with Reading and play for their reserve team.

Robin Friday must have put two or three out of the game.

In Hurley's words, Robin Friday "trained like he played"; "he had no other way of playing".

Robin Friday was repeatedly and cynically fouled by the opposing players and sustained injuries necessitating five minutes on the sideline late in the first half.

Robin Friday drank extremely heavily, favouring American Colt 45 malt liquor, and his antics during his drinking sessions caused many landlords to lose patience with him.

For example, Robin Friday was barred from Caversham's Crown public house after he ended a night there leaping between the tables and dancing on the bar.

Robin Friday then began to dance, completely naked apart from the boots.

Robin Friday was coming up to 80 and he had a dog's life in the flat.

Robin Friday underwent an operation to have tattoos removed from his fingers during the summer break, and afterwards joined a hippie commune in Cornwall, neglecting to inform Reading of this latter decision.

Robin Friday continued to play well when the League programme began the following month.

Robin Friday was the Football League's joint top scorer by this time with nine goals, but he had already been booked three times that season and the Post argued that by constantly risking suspension he was letting the team down.

Robin Friday jumped over the wall and stole some stone angels from a grave, intending to place them beside the club chairman Frank Waller, who was sleeping on the coach.

Robin Friday was the club's top scorer for the season, with 18 league goals and 20 overall, and was voted its player of the year.

Robin Friday, who had already scored 18 goals that season, rose to the occasion with an effort that has been described by many sources as one of the greatest ever scored.

Robin Friday set up the game's only goal, beating three players before hitting the post with his shot; Ray Hiron scored from the rebound.

The row over the new contracts continued throughout the off-season, while Robin Friday planned his second wedding; he had been formally divorced from Maxine after years of separation, and subsequently engaged to Liza Deimel, a Reading-born university graduate.

The wedding was filmed by Southern Television, before whose cameras Robin Friday, wearing an open-necked tiger-skin-pattern shirt, brown velvet suit and snakeskin boots, sat on the steps of the church and rolled a joint.

Robin Friday had invited about two hundred people, mostly friends and relatives from London, who joined in the drinking and drug-taking and ending up fighting each other and stealing the couple's wedding presents, one of which was a large quantity of cannabis.

Robin Friday was so angry at his team's performance that he broke into the Mansfield dressing room and defecated in the team bath.

Robin Friday was reluctant to go to the Welsh club, saying that it was too far from home, that he wanted to go to a First Division team and that he wanted more money than was being offered; however, when Hurley told him that unless he went to Cardiff he would be released, he agreed and travelled to Wales on 30 December 1976.

Robin Friday's form declined after his strong debut and his personal life remained troubled and chaotic, leading him to vanish regularly and miss Cardiff matches.

Robin Friday was supposed to be living in Bristol, but his manager would often find on visiting his house that he had been elsewhere for weeks.

Leslie Hamilton, the Cardiff club doctor, later said that he had believed at the time that Andrews was being far too soft on Robin Friday; indeed, according to teammate Paul Went, the forward would simply leave after each match and not be heard of until he returned for the next game.

Indeed, soon after moving to Cardiff, Robin Friday appeared one day in Hurley's office at Elm Park asking to come back to Reading.

Robin Friday held out a hand to apologise, but Aleksic reacted angrily.

In celebration, Robin Friday jogged back past the goalkeeper while giving him the V-sign.

Meanwhile, without Robin Friday, Reading were relegated back to the Fourth Division by one point.

The cause was found to be Robin Friday, standing on the hotel's snooker table in his underpants and throwing the balls around the room in fury.

Robin Friday was marked during the game by Mark Lawrenson, who so frustrated the Cardiff forward with his close attention that Robin Friday waited for Lawrenson to attempt a slide tackle and then kicked him in the face.

Robin Friday claimed that he had had enough of people telling him what to do, and walked into Andrews's office on 20 December 1977 to announce that he was retiring from professional football.

Robin Friday married for a third time in 1980, but was divorced again within three years.

In terms of significance to Reading FC, Dellor stated that Robin Friday was the team's "very own George Best".

Robin Friday was ranked first in Channel 4's list of football "bad boys" in August 2007, while Football365 placed him at eighth place in a 2010 list of "wasted talents".

Robin Friday was unselfish and would take just as much pleasure out of setting up a goal scored by a teammate as netting one himself.

Robin Friday possessed fine ball control and dribbling skills, and could shoot with both great power and sharp accuracy.

On top of his technical talent, Robin Friday was physically very strong and able to withstand sustained blows or injuries.

Robin Friday boasted an exceptional work-rate, which Dwyer recalled gave any side including him a strong boost: "When he was in the line-up you'd have a centre-forward and a centre-half; not only would he be up there running them ragged, but when it broke down he'd be the first person to start tackling back".

Robin Friday was assisted in this by a smooth and effective sliding tackle which despite all of Friday's attacking skills Hurley considered one of the strongest parts of his game.

Robin Friday was known for giving his all in any game in which he played, no matter the circumstances.

Robin Friday employed the use of psychological tactics; aiming to spook opposing players, Robin Friday would kiss them or fondle their testicles.