After Reading despatched Newport County 3–0 on 14 September 1974, Friday and his forward partner Dick Habbin had scored six 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.