Michael Gilkes was a fast and tricky winger who never quite made it into the Premiership in his 17 seasons with up-and-coming Reading – or, indeed, after his transfer to Wolves in 1997 – thanks, in each case, to defeats in play-off Finals.

But he had four First Division matches on loan to Southampton in the spring of 1992, returning to Elm Park as the top flight was rebranded, that summer, as the Premier League. His loan-spell with the Saints was a reunion with Ian Branfoot, the manager who had won the Simod Cup with Reading in 1988, even as they were being relegated to the Third Division. Having played at left-back and converted the vital semi-final penalty, Michael was upfront in the Final, to score the Royals’ first goal in a 4-1 win v Luton. As the commemorative card put it, he was “a revelation” in the Final at Wembley. His four games for Southampton having failed to demonstrate Premiership potential, Michael went on to complete almost 500 competitive games for Reading in a manner that would earn him recognition, in a fans’ poll, as

the Royals’ best-ever left-winger.

After 30-odd games each for Wolves and Millwall, he went non-league, latterly becoming a coach at Conference South Basingstoke, even as he worked, part-time, as an Academy coach at Reading. In 2017 he was promoted to first team coach under Jaap Stam. Having flirted with a parallel life in local radio, he branched out into real estate, becoming a qualified mortgage consultant, working for his former team-mate-and-later-manager, Mick Gooding, at a Reading-based estate agency.