Reading Hornets F.C. was an English

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

club.

History

The club claimed a foundation date of 1873 and was certainly playing matches in the 1874–75 season. The Hornets competed in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

in 1876 and 1877. In 1876-77 the club lost 2–0 to

the Swifts ''Swifts'' (also known as ''The Swifts'') is a heritage-listed late-Victorian architecture, Victorian Battlement, castellated Gothic Revival architecture, Gothic Revival mansion located in the suburb of Darling Point, New South Wales, Darling Po ...

in the first round; as local rivals

Reading F.C. Reading Football Club ( ) is a professional football club based in Reading, Berkshire, England. They compete in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. They play their home matches at the Select Car Leasing Sta ...

had not entered the competition, two of the Reading players (Rogers and Marks) guested for the Hornets. The club had generally had a good season, with a win over Cup regulars

Maidenhead Maidenhead is a market town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire, England. It lies on the southwestern bank of the River Thames, which at this point forms the border with Buckinghamshire. In the 2021 Census, ...

and no heavy defeats. However a defeat against Reading in 1876 under acrimonious circumstances saw key players leaving the Hornets for the more established club at the start of the 1877–78 season (including captain Gilbert Sillence), and, after losing 10–0 to Maidenhead in the first round of the Cup (a tie so one-sided that the tenth goal was scored by the Maidenhead goalkeeper W. E. Lovegrove, who had come out of goal for the last ten minutes) the club did not have enough players remaining to fulfil the next two fixtures which it had arranged. Its last members joined Reading.

Colours

The club wore black and amber jerseys, with a black cap and gold tassel.

References

Defunct football clubs in England Defunct football clubs in Berkshire Association football clubs established in 1873 Sport in Reading, Berkshire {{England-footyclub-defunct-stub