goals each and topped the Football League goalscoring charts. However, at the same time Friday's disciplinary record was becoming so bad that even the Evening Post, usually favourable to him, criticised him on 30 September 1974, just after he had scored his first hat-trick for Reading in a 4–1 victory over Southport. He was the Football League's joint top scorer by this time with nine goals, but he had also already been booked three times that season and the Post argued that by constantly risking suspension he was letting the team down. Under the system then used, the three bookings gave him an automatic two-match suspension. The article argued that missing games because of "completely unnecessary" and "stupid" infractions amounted to selling the club short. Friday's behaviour on Reading away trips was unpredictable and erratic: in the words of teammate John Murray, "Some of the things he did were funny but other times they were just mad". On the way back from one away match, the team bus pulled over and Friday noticed that they were beside a cemetery. Friday jumped over the wall and stole some stone angels from a grave, intending to place them beside the club chairman Frank Waller, who was sleeping on the coach. When he returned, Hurley sternly told him that "you must never ever desecrate a graveyard"—Friday dutifully returned the statues. On another occasion, Friday reacted to the news that a teammate had smuggled a girl into his hotel room by kicking the door in. Later on the same night he walked into the bar carrying a swan that he had found in the hotel grounds. During an FA Cup tie away against Swindon Town on 23 November, Friday began to have trouble breathing and despite leaving the game for five minutes to recuperate with an inhaler was eventually forced to come off for good, coughing violently. After recovering from what was reported to be a chest infection, he returned to the team on 28 December, having missed four matches, and marked his return with his side's only goal in a 3–1 home defeat to Stockport County. Reading dropped to 12th place on 6 January 1975, and were only three points above the re-election places; however, by the time they took on Workington at home on 3 February they had risen to 10th. Reading won 3–0, with Friday scoring the third goal with a