When : Saturday February 10, 3pm
Where : Madejski Stadium, Reading, RG2 0FL
Capacity : 24,161
After the euphoria of the Stevenage "miracle" comes the difficult bit. Capitalising on the feel good factor and the 3 points earned. So often Reading have got themselves into a "capitalise" scenario and then totally ****** it up and this one will be as dangerous as it gets.
Firstly, Charlton have a decent squad of players that are just misfiring at the moment and while they are currently on a bit of a bad run (12 league games without a win) how many of these sorts of side do we see turning up expecting to play Reading only to find that Charity FC have arrived instead and hey presto they receive the "end of whatever cr@p run they find themselves on".
Secondly, Nathan "he's been gone too long" Jones only took over as manager of the Addicks on Sunday, so this will be his first game back on the management merry-go-round since being axed by Southampton about a year ago, and it's not uncommon for the proverbial "new manager bounce" to start with an immediate effect.
Charlton have also failed to keep a clean sheet in the league since beating Reading 4-0 at the end of September (and have only won 2 league games since then) and haven't kept a clean sheet away from home since a 0-0 at Shrewsbury in September.
Squad wise the main threat is posed by Alfie May (16 in 27 league games), midfielder Corey Taylor is the next to watch with 8 goals, then there's the ex-Reading threats posed by Terrell Thomas, Michael Hector and Tennai Watson. Also Ben Watson is at Charlton now and though he hasn't been involved this season he will certainly be someone to watch if the new management decide to go for "all change". The Addicks brought in 6 players in January; Freddie Ladapo, Conor McGrandles, Macaulay Gillesphey, Conor Coventry, Ramarni Edmonds-Green, Lewis Ward & Kayne Ramsay while former Reading keeper, Sam Walker, moved onto Bradford so it will be interesting to see what happens to them now Michael Appleton's moved on.
Tom Holmes may well be back in the mix for this game as Reading's injury list seems to be able to maintain it's shortness. Camara's not been seen for ages though so suspect he's the other member of the current club.
Referee
Craig Hicks
Previously
25 Nov 23 > Wycombe Wanderers 1-2 Reading
Historically
This is the 21st season shared with the once great name of Charlton Athletic with the first games stretching back to the 1920s before disappearing in the 1930s for pretty much the next 60 years or so while Charlton built their "great" name. In the previous 20 league visits from the South East Londoners Reading have won 10 and lost 4 but note that Charlton won 2-0 on their last visit and have won 2 of the last 3 league games played at the Mad Stad/SCL.
How to follow the game
- Get a ticket and travel
- Listen to Radio 5 Live and/or a myriad of other radio stations for score flashes
- Ring/text a mate for updates
- Use a RoyalTV subscription
- BBC Radio Berkshire (FM : 104.4, 104.1 or 95.4 depending where you are in the area)
.
