RONNIE BLACKMAN, Reading’s all-time leading goalscorer, died on Tuesday aged 90.
Blackman rattled in 158 goals in the Football League – the most ever by a Royals player – 39 of which arrived in the 1951-52 Division Three (South) season.
This remains a club record for the most netted in a single league campaign to date.
The forward was snapped up from Gosport Borough by then-Royals boss Ted Drake back in February 1947, initially as a part-time player with many of his early appearances for Reading coming in the reserves.
Blackman was handed his first-team debut against Bristol Rovers, a goalless draw at Elm Park in October 1947.
The player became a full-time professional the following year, with his first goal in the club’s colours arriving in a 2-0 victory over Port Vale in April 1948.
It was to light the blue touch paper for Blackman, who struck five times in a single game on two occasions, the first of which coming during the 7-0 rout of Brighton and Hove Albion in November 1950.
He repeated the fate when firing Reading to a 5-2 triumph over Southend United two years’ later.
This helped Blackman to his record-setting 39 goals for the season, all of which contributed to the 112 the team scored in the same campaign – another club record.
He was the last remaining survivor of the that free-scoring squad.
Blackman was eventually sold to Nottingham Forest in 1954 before moving to Ipswich Town the following year, where he remained with the Tractor Boys until 1958.
The player briefly represented non-league outfit Tonbridge before hanging up his boots and moving back to his native Portsmouth, where he became a Post Office telephone engineer, the job he held prior to becoming a professional footballer.
Blackman leaves behind wife Iris and daughter Sue.
