When : Friday, 26th January, 7.45pm
Where : Hillsborough, Sheffield, S6 1SW
Capacity : 39,812
Away Stand : Leppings Lane, Upper Tier
It’s Sheffield Wednesday away so it must be another Friday night. Yes after last season’s screw up by the fixture computer, Reading fans get cr@pped on once again for this hugely uninspiring cup tie. One wonders if there’s a bye-law in Sheffield that prevents football from happening on a Sunday - and if that was the case why would Reading or Sheffield Wednesday fall foul of it given their utterly appalling current form?
Reading take their magnificent run of 1 win (v Stevenage in the last round) from 10 games to Hillsborough to face Wednesday’s equally miserable run of 2 wins (away at Forest and at home to Carlisle) from 14 games. Like Reading, Wednesday are appalling at home with the Carlisle win being their first there since beating Millwall in October. In that time they have also been turned over at home by Burton (by 3-0) so this game could be one big embarrassment all round.
Really don’t know what to expect team wise, whether there will be a fair few team changes or whether there’ll just be a bit of tinkering eg Jaakkola in and the rest being as strong a team as can be expected. Richards is a doubt after picking up a slight hamstring problem in the last game so I’d probably expect Blackett to start snd hopefully Bacuna will get a start in midfield. Meanwhile Aluko and Berg will no doubt continue to amaze by keeping their places
Referee
The expected referee for this one is Johnny Brooks
Previously
23 Dec 17 > Reading 1-2 Burton Albion
Historically
Not a particularly happy hunting ground for Reading but then probably about average for the club for a northern trek and only ten previous league visits. Of those ten three have been won and four lost. There have been no previous cup meetings between the clubs at Hillsborough although both have one win apiece from the two FA Cup games played at Elm Park
How to follow the game
- Get a ticket and travel to the Mad Stad
- Listen to Radio 5 Live and/or a myriad of other radio stations for score flashes
- Ring/text a mate for updates
- Use an iFollow subscription
- BBC Radio Berkshire (FM : 104.4, 104.1 or 95.4 depending where you are in the area)
ramblings), but as the next game comes round, my hope that we'll somehow turn things round gets bigger .. until I see the team sheet the useless Dutch tw@t has put out. But then as we approach kick off, that hope resurfaces ... until ... well you'll guess the rest.
