When : Friday, 30th March, 5.30pm
Where : Madejski Stadium, Reading, RG2 0FL
Capacity : 24,161
Well after almost two weeks Reading will return to the field of play but with a new general. In a move everyone was resigned to never seeing this season, Jaap and his merry band have gone and been swiftly replaced by a hoped for miracle worker in Paul Clement.
Given the idiocy of international breaks disrupting everything (and the even more stupid stupidity of some FAs to take their players to the other side of the world during a season for pointless crapola games) Mr Clement will barely have more than 2 days to work with what there is of a full squad of players so expecting anything too different might be a bit much.
However, what I would hope for is a bit of a lift and positivity around the entire ground, not just from the fans but also the players on realising that the slate is clean and things will be whatever they can make of them. So perhaps a bit more zip and obvious effort in the right places might seen rather than anything in too different playing wise.
Perhaps it might be a new dawn for Aluko, perhaps we might see him playing more of a wing role rather than the dreadful drifting about inside and doing not very much but getting in the way. Perhaps we might see a slightly rejuvenated Blackett. Perhaps we might see slightly better striking options and players opting for safety first rather than the mantra “if in doubt, kick it about between the back four”.
Just also believe that it might be the end to unnecessary team alterations and playing square pegs in round holes for seemingly no better reason than you can do that if you're the manager.
If nothing else let’s hope the supporters decide to start anew as the playing future is still very much in the club's hands. It’s now safe to come out of the cupboard or wherever you’ve been hiding in the hope it all went away because it has all gone away. Whoever plays get behind the team for 90 minutes and urge them onwards like never before. Make noise, lot’s of it and really ramp the volume up.
Issues still abound though. The injury list is as immense as ever meaning team selection is pretty much automatic though Martin should be back from illness, Swift should be riskable and we should be in the territory of Elphick re-emerging very very soon.
Then there’s the opposition. It’s the fakes. It’s Tredder’s favourites. It’s QPR. And in recent years this fixture has been completely atrocious featuring 2 dreadful teams who failed to provide any entertainment between them. In particular the last 2 games have seen 2 away wins with 0 goals from Reading and 2 for the visitors. Last year was particularly awful with yet another defensive howler trying to outdo the year before that when Al-Habsi managed to drop a tame ball into his own net in the last minute and get Steve Clarke the sack in the process.
Even Sky have learned it’s a total arse of a fixture and won’t televise it any more despite Reading’s attempt to entice them by switching the kick off way back early on in the season.
In fact this fixture would appear to be ideal for the current Reading run of 1 win in 18 and 1 clean sheet in 19. In Reading’s favour though QPR have nothing whatsoever to play for and have done nothing much all season apart from successfully battle to stay about 15th. Watch out though, QPR did come from 2-0 down last time out to get a draw at in form Fulham, the game before that saw them win 3-1 at Villa and they're on a run of 4 games without defeat - though they've only managed one clean sheet away from home all season.
Referee
Old Man Andrews will be happy as, for the fourth time this season, Nottinghamshire's David Coote is currently scheduled to take ownership of Reading brave and bright new future.
Previously
10 Feb 2017 > Middlesbrough 2-1 Reading
25 Nov 2017 > Reading 0-0 Sheffield Wednesday
21 Oct 2017 > Sheffield United 2-1 Reading
05 Nov 2016 > Wigan Athletic 0-3 Reading
17 Sep 2016 > Barnsley 1-2 Reading
12 Jan 2016 > Derby County 1-1 Reading
22 Aug 2015 > Reading 0-0 MK Dons
16 Feb 2014 > Queen's Park Rangers 1-3 Reading
07 Dec 2013 > Reading 1-2 AFC Bournemouth
03 Aug 2013 > Reading 2-1 Ipswich Town
11 Feb 2012 > Reading 2-0 Coventry City
Historically
Overall Reading have an edge on league fixtures in the "binary" derby by 36 wins to 29. There have been 22 stalemates.
Thus this game is the 44th league visit from that lot at the (other) end of the M4 and Reading have recorded 25 victories to 9 from the Rangers but failed to win any of the previous 5 home fixtures
Why binary derby? Well the last 7 home games have been truly IT techie like and dull in the extreme with about as many shots as there have been goals resulting in scores of 0-0, 1-0, 0-1, 0-0, 1-1, 0-1, 0-1.
So not a lot for Reading to have to improve on then and even in the current run of ***** they should have a chance of that.
How to follow the game
- Get a ticket and travel to the game
- 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)
