The 2012-13 campaign delivered ultimate heartbreak for Reading as The Royals, fresh off their Championship title win, finished a crushing 19th in the Premier League and were relegated after just one season back in the top flight. Leading the charge was the clinical super-sub Adam Le Fondre, whose highly efficient 12 league goals (14 overall) earned him the Premier League Player of the Month award in January, a rare moment of joy in a season defined by struggle and a record-low six league wins. Despite his goalscoring brilliance and an unforgettable 7-5 League Cup defeat to Arsenal, the mid-season sacking of manager Brian McDermott was not enough to arrest the slide, marking a difficult, yet defining, chapter in the club's modern history.