In August 1985, English football was in an horrific situation, persecuted by a government determined to crush its principal constituency and devastated by avoidable tragedies at Bradford and Heysel. What it needed was a start to the following season that reminded people why they bothered in the first place, and, incredibly, that was precisely what it got; Manchester United and Reading performed with a vim seen only once before and never since, Reading winning a resounding victory in the direct battle between the two.

That they inhabited opposite ends of football's own viciously capitalist stratification was of particular resonance. Through the summer, "the big clubs" had conducted themselves with customary grace, not so much throwing their weight as hurling their mass and threatening a breakaway that proved once again their donation of not a single intercourse for anything save their basest needs.

Reading were precisely the kind of club deemed expendable and just two years earlier had almost expended themselves. Suffering at the bottom of Division Three and attracting crowds of less than 2,000, their chairman, Frank Waller, had been approached by Robert Maxwell, the owner and chairman of Oxford United, his wheeze that they join in the formation Thames Valley Royals, to be based in Didcot. "If we in Thames Valley are to retain a League club we've got to unite Reading and Oxford," he asserted with characteristic foresight. "Everything in the world that cannot pay its way must go the way of merger to combine into stronger units," he explained with characteristic sensitivity. "Nothing short of the end of the Earth would prevent its effect," he announced with characteristic understatement.

Ian Branfoot was only 37 when he replaced Maurice Evans as Reading's manager. Photograph: Bob Thomas/Bob Thomas/Getty Images

Though two directors on Reading's board backed Waller, a third, Roy Tranter, did not, and he was joined in opposition by Roger Smee, a businessman and former player. Smee challenged the controlling interest claimed by those behind the sale and Tranter challenged their right to pass on a particular class of share, persuading the high court to injunct against their trade. This forced Waller and his allies to resign and allowed Smee to replace them.

Yet, despite securing the club's future he had not purchased immunity from criticism. In January 1984, there was consternation when he sacked the popular manager Maurice Evans to appoint his untried assistant, Ian Branfoot. But with the team handily placed, Branfoot, just 37, took advantage of his opportunity, leading the club to promotion using only 17 players.

The following season was one of consolidation. Though Reading recorded 11 away wins, the highlight a 5-2 pummelling of champions-elect Bradford City, a January injury to Trevor Senior – who had scored in seven consecutive games and would finish the season with a total of 27 – was enough to stymie their hopes of further progress, their final 15 games yielding just three victories.

But the progress was sufficient to convince Branfoot to stay, when, in the summer, Southampton sought him as a replacement for Lawrie McMenemy. His feeling was that Reading, a commuter town club, had the potential to become "another Watford", who had raced through the divisions and finished as the country's second-best team in 1983, reaching the FA Cup final the following year.

So instead, he strengthened, paying £15,000 for Andy Rogers, Plymouth's left-winger and Millwall £35,000 for their striker, Kevin Bremner. At the time, it looked as though he would succeed Senior, who was expected to leave as had his predecessor, Kerry Dixon – most likely for Benfica.

But he did not. Their English manager, John Mortimore, was behind the deal but the club's president had never heard of him, preferring to pursue a Romanian international instead. As befitting his reputation as a dressing room wag, Senior understood – "fair comment", he admitted – and later, took small consolation when informed of Benfica's poor start to the season.

Off the pitch, things were trickier. Following the Valley Parade fire, the ambit of the Safety of Sports Grounds Act was finally extended to encompass the lower divisions, immediately reducing the capacity of Elm Park from 27,200 to 6,000 – a problem then compounded by the council's denial of planning permission for a new social facility. "The club was shocked and disturbed about this clear act of unhelpfulness," said Smee. However, sympathy was scarce; Reading had volunteered to pilot Margaret Thatcher's reviled ID card scheme, despite its haughty disregard for football fans and aggressive restriction of their civil liberties – a situation adjudged to be neither shocking nor disturbing.

But the players settled immediately, obeying the instruction of Madonna's first UK No1 and firmly ensconcing themselves within the confines of the groove. They began at home to Blackpool, with a solitary goal scored by local boy Jerry Williams – converted by Branfoot from full-back into midfielder – enough to secure the points. There was, however, also bad news, Bremner damaging knee ligaments that would keep him from playing for at least three weeks.

After a 3-1 home defeat to Bournemouth in the Milk Cup came a schlep to Plymouth, Senior's first goal of the season proving decisive, and then a 3-2 midweek home win over Bristol Rovers. Next, Reading visited Ninian Park, where Senior, now properly stepping to the beat, opened the scoring on six minutes before Cardiff equalised on the hour. But he appeared again on 78 and 86 to secure both win and hat-trick, though did not depart with the match ball. "He's done enough damage to this club without taking away its equipment as well," reasoned Alan Durban, the defeated manager.

Curiously, things were very different just 10 days later, when Ninian Park hosted the decisive World Cup qualifier between Wales and Scotland. After Scotland had achieved the draw that they needed to reach a play-off against Australia, members of the Tartan Army sneaked into the ground to liberate the penalty spot from which Davie Cooper scored their equaliser and the netting in which it nestled. Though the damage cost £140 to repair, suddenly Cardiff located their magnanimity. "Good luck to them," said the managing director, Ron Jones. "If they wanted it that badly, they can have it. They were so well behaved and such good ambassadors for soccer that it was no more than a minor irritant."

After losing the second leg of the League Cup tie to miss out on a home game with the league champions Everton in the next round, there was better news for Reading. First, Norwich abandoned plans to sign Senior and then he scored the winning goal as Walsall were beaten 2-1 – on a day that left them and Manchester United as the country's only teams with 100% records. However, their methods were entirely different. While United played through midfield, Reading largely ignored it, their athletes and lumps either banging the ball long or banging it wide to bang it into the middle.

And their opponents could not cope, a visit to Rotherham safely negotiated before a midweek mosey to Griffin Park. Brian Glanville writing in The Times:

"Two minutes to go, Brentford (tiring) 1, Reading (lucky to be level) 1. A throw-in to Reading on the left. A flick-on to the tall, slim, curly-headed Senior. He chests the ball down, spins immaculately, and places a deadly low, left-footed shot in the bottom right-hand corner of the goal. There you are, said everybody, including Reading's manager Ian Branfoot, the Reading local journalists, and Ken Brown of Norwich City, who was expected to buy Senior."

"I've watched him five times and never seen him have a good game," said the Brentford manager, Frank McLintock, "but he's got a good goalscoring record. I can't make it out. Maybe we've played well against him. I can't see any outstanding quality he's got. I mean, you can't ignore his record, his record's been spectacular. He's a surprising type of player. He just seems to score 20 goals a season and he's not outstanding in the air, he's not particularly quick."

Nor was Brown all that impressed. "I've seen him a few times," he said. "He doesn't do much, then he comes out and scores a goal: all he's done today. He's only been in the league two or three years and he's scoring goals and I'm prepared to take a gamble."

Good of him though that was, he was deprived of the opportunity so to do; two days later, the archetypal goalscorer signed a new contract. "Trevor would be the first to admit that his skill on the ball and his footballing ability are not his greatest assets", said Branfoot. "But for me, his greatest asset is scoring goals. Our physio and I have sat there for two years, watching him ... you're feeling hopeless and you'll say, all of a sudden, 'Trevor will score'. And he does. That's his gift. A tremendous goalscorer. They all have the same qualities: the ability to hit the ball repeatedly on target. Something they've been born with. They can hit a ball. Nothing more than that; though people say they were in the right place."

And even Senior himself wasn't quite sure how it all happened, the process of arriving in the right place to divert the ball to its right place too natural to bear explanation. "If I have time to think about my goals, I mess them up," he surmised. "I'm better at getting one-touch, two-touch. The more time I have, the less effective I am. Our keeper says the earlier you hit it, the more difficult it is for him."

And immediately he was at it again, scoring the second in a 2-0 win over a miserable Swansea side, on their way back from first to fourth division. In a bid to avert the decline, their manager, John Bond, released a number of young players – most notably, Dean Saunders – and got nowhere. "There must be a number of poor teams like us in the Third Division for Reading to have won so many matches" was his noble rejoinder.

Now possessed of eight straight wins, Reading were at the centre of the football world, the spotlight intensified by the parallel record of Manchester United. And where there's success there's chancers, with various local businessmen promising the club £4,500, should Tottenham's record of 11 consecutive wins from the start of the season, achieved in 1960-61, be surpassed. And after the next weekend, it was a game closer, good work by Dean Horrix helping Mark White arrange the late goal that beat Doncaster at Belle Vue.

"We can murder teams in the last 20 minutes," Branfoot kvelled, the circumstance partially a consequence of his ferocious training programme that included regular cross-country runs and weight training. But his method was also a contributory factor, opposing teams word down by the number of tackles and clearances they were forced to make in dangerous areas, tired legs and minds leading to lapses in marking and concentration.

Fortified by the latest fillip, Reading produced their best performance of the season so far, a 4-2 pasting of Chesterfield that was even more convincing than the scoreline suggested – and again, principal praise went to Senior, his second hat-trick of the season achieved despite 10 minutes off the pitch while six stitches were inserted into his gashed forehead. But the game was not without attendant controversy: the club reported a gate of 5,946, snugly within the limit imposed by the updated legislation, while others reckoned 7,000 a more realistic figure. "There is absolutely no way we defied the law," said Mike Lewis, the club's managing director. "The total of 5,946 was the number of people who paid to come in on the night. There was no way of checking whether season ticket holders turned up or not or how many complimentary tickets there were."

Prior to the game, agreement had been reached with Berkshire county council to increase ground capacity to 7,500 but the change could not be processed in time, taking effect at the weekend, when Reading would attempt to equal Spurs' record by beating Bolton. And with moves afoot to increase capacity to 15,000 in time for the visit of Wolves three weeks later, Smee tried to antagonise the town into action. "It's a wonderful feeling to reach this stage now", he said, "but I'm not convinced Reading deserves a football team."

Yet they had one nonetheless, one which stormed to a dominant victory while United drew at Luton, a goal from the young and local centre-back Steve Wood the least that their superiority merited. As for criticism of their style of play – "Watford and Sheffield Wednesday", "with a dash of Southampton", Branfoot was relentlessly positive, presenting himself as progenitor and innovator. "Few recognise this fact but when I was a coach at Southampton, they played the type of football which was the forerunner of the so-called Watford-style," he said. "We did not play up-and-under football, but we hurt people by getting the ball into the box as quickly as possible." And the principal beneficiary was Senior, "the first to admit that he has more scoring chances because of our system".

Next, Reading travelled to Newport, and before the game, Danny Blanchflower – Spurs' captain in 1960-61 – interviewed Branfoot for his newspaper column. "A nice lad," he reported. "He laughs a lot and he brings an element of fun to the game. Spurs will lose far less from losing the record than Reading will gain from it." Branfoot, meanwhile, pretended that his team had not even talked about the new mark, focused solely on winning promotion.

It had been four years since Somerton Park had tickled the public consciousness, when County found themselves in the quarter-finals of the European Cup Winners' Cup, against East Germany's Carl Zeiss Jena. And it had become no more salubrious since, bordered by a speedway track, corrugated-iron fences and cinder banking, with InterCity 125s shaking past at irregular intervals. In 1920, the ground had also hosted Reading's first game in league football, back when they were known as the Biscuitmen, and would run out to "Help Them On Their Way, Make Them Bright And Gay" – but now, their 3,500 travelling fans serenaded them with incessant strains of "Here We Go".

And their team did not let them down. The former Spurs player Stuart Beavon put Reading ahead, panelling low past Mark Kendall, a former team-mate. There followed a spell of home pressure but the captain, Martin Hicks, and his partner, Woods, were simply too strong. "They've got big towerblocks of players in their side," Bobby Smith, County's manager, said afterwards.

Then, in the second half, the substitute Bremner headed home Beavon's cross with his first touch and the record was secured. "That's as tough a match as we've had all season," said Branfoot afterwards. "We had to soak up a lot of pressure and the goals came at opportune moments to dispel our anxiety."

Not that he was letting his players enjoy the moment, adamant that there would be no carbonated celebration. "We can't afford it because we are paying out too much in bonuses," he semi-joked. Instead, everyone was sent straight home – no doubt they all did precisely that – and consoled with the promise that headaches would be sanctioned once they had been beaten. In the meantime, the council set about associating itself, planning a civic reception.

Before the next game, away to Lincoln – where Reading had been beaten 5-1 the previous season – there were worries as to the fitness of Senior, unable to train since Newport. But he found a way, settling matters with an overhead kick just after half-time; a win against Wolves in midweek would equal the English record of consecutive victories, held jointly by Manchester United (1904-05), Bristol City (1905-06) and Preston (1950-51).

Originally, the game had been scheduled as the one at which the club's computerised ID card system would make its debut – until, suddenly, this crucial innovation was inexplicably of marginal importance. A crowd of 13,000 generated gate receipts of £90,000.

Now, everything was going for Reading. The previous evening, they fortified their position at the top of the table without even playing – Walsall, in second place, had lost 2-1 at home to Brentford, while Notts County, who were third, were also beaten, by Wigan. And Wolves were expected to be compliant opposition, 31 points off the lead, defeated in every away game but one and with only one win in 14 – form that would see them relegated with the same number of points as Swansea.

But they took the lead in the fifth minute, before a whirlwind of pressure around the hour eventuated a pair of Reading goals either side of it, from Bremner and Senior – his 12th of the season and 79th for the club, in just 109 games. "The priceless asset of being able to turn on a ball, strike it first time and get his shot on target more often than not", wrote David Lacey in this paper. "He also has the confidence that separates those who know they will score from those who merely hope".

And his team retained the ascendancy without scoring again until, with five minutes to go, Wolves broke away, Ryan sweeping past Westwood to earn them a draw and Reading some fizz. "We deserve it for the games beforehand but not really for tonight," said Branfoot.

But the setback had no lasting consequences, the lead at the top soon extended to 20 points. Though they slowed down in the new year, promotion was secured with five games to go and the title a week later, while Senior finished the season with 27 league goals and 31 in total. Not only did the town deserve a team but the team deserved a town.