It was somewhat of a Royals reunion at Madejski Stadium on Tuesday evening, as Kevin Doyle, Stephen Hunt and Ibrahima Sonko all returned to their former club.

The Wolves duo had of course travelled down as part of their pre-season preparations, whilst 'Sonks' came to wish his former colleagues well after agreeing terms to join Portsmouth.

There were smiles all round as all three greeted familiar faces before the match, and it was clear that the visit brought back some great memories for all involved.

"It's good to be back, though it's certainly a strange feeling," said Kevin Doyle.

"I spent the best years of my career here, the first year winning the Championship was unbelievable and the second year finishing eighth in the Premier League so you couldn't ask for more or dream any better than that.

"We both left on good terms, it was amicable and it was the right time and the right thing to do, I had some great memories playing and celebrating with the fans - it'll be very hard to top it."

Fellow Irishman Hunt was also quick to express his fond feelings for the Royals.

"We can walk away after four years and say we did the best we can and left on good terms. Myself and Kevin came at the same time and we had two or three seasons of very good memories."



The ever popular Sonks was in good spirits before kick off, and admitted he was already looking forward to coming up against Reading in a Pompey shirt.

"I'm looking forward to a new challenge and a new story - it's time to forget the last two years so I just need to open a new page and start again," he said.

"It's going to be funny to play against Reading, hopefully I won't make a mistake! It's hard to pick a highlight from my time; every bit of the three years was great.

"I don't keep many things but I think I have every single shirt from Reading from the years I was here, so I will collect two this year."