Tomorrow night we renew our oldest rivalry in football when our Under-21s travel to Marlow to contest the semi-final of the Berks & Bucks Senior Cup.

Those of you who are under the age of 160 will probably not be familiar with the controversial background! So STAR's Roger Titford, author of The Lost Years of Reading FC, has provided us with the history that provides the backdrop to tomorrow's semi-final...

Our first meeting with Marlow was exactly 150 years ago today on 20 March 1873. The game was played on King’s Meadow and finished 0-0. So did the next three local derbies!#

Determined to break the deadlock in March 1875, we borrowed players from Reading Hornets and the Maidenhead captain – today’s equivalent would be borrowing Brentford’s star striker to play for us against QPR! It didn’t work, we lost 0-1 and the Marlow correspondent took the mickey. Argument raged in the local press for a fortnight and we did not play Marlow again for another four seasons.

Then, unavoidably, we had to meet in the first ever final of the Berks & Bucks Cup on the 27 March 1879. Our line-up contained two current full internationals, two future mayors of Reading and a winger in holy orders! With a powerful team like that we couldn’t fail, winning 1-0 on our home ground and thus securing our first ever trophy!

Local battle resumes...150 years since our first meeting with Marlow!