When : Saturday 29th September, 3pm
Where : Griffin Park, London, TW8 0NT
Capacity : 12,763
Away Stand : Brook Road Stand
What might I see in the area : Alan Freeman
Reading will take their 1 game unbeaten run to Griffin Park for what is expected to be the toughest game of the season so far. Brentford are unbeaten at home since Cardiff won there way back in March and since then there has been nothing but points rolling in. There have been 5 games so far at “The Park” this season (4 league, 1 cup) and Brentford have won the lot by 12 goals to 2 so this game is probably as close to a home banker as you can get in the division.
While Reading have a clear week before the game, Brentford have a league cup game at Arsenal to worry about tomorrow, which hopefully will see a couple of their first teamers involved if nothing else.
John O’Shea will serve his one game suspension for this one while the injury list (largely Popa, Edwards, & Obita) with doubts over McShane and Blackett. There are chances that Harriott and/or McCleary might get a place on the bench having supposedly recovered from their problems.
As a result of the above it’s likely PC will have to revert to the more standard central defensive partnership of Moore and Ilori so the chances are the Chris Gunter may well be restored to right back though I’m hoping Blackett or McShane might be over their injuries to give the manager alternative options in that position.
Referee
This round of games sees County Durham’s Geoff Eltringham back for another go at Reading’s fortunes.
Previous
03 Feb 18 > Reading 0-2 Millwall
22 Apr 17 > Nottingham Forest 3-2 Reading
17 Mar 17 > Sheffield Wednesday 0-2 Reading
04 Feb 17 > Ipswich Town 2-2 Reading
13 Dec 16 > Leeds United 2-0 Reading
02 Apr 16 > Bolton Wanderers 0-1 Reading
12 Dec 15 > Preston North End 1-0 Reading
07 Apr 15 > Blackpool 1-1 Reading
23 Nov 13 > Blackburn Rovers 0-0 Reading
14 Feb 12 > Derby County 0-1 Reading
Historically
Reading have won roughly a quarter of the league games played at Brentford (10 out of 42) while losing on 19 occasions. Brentford have won 5 of the last 8 league games played between the sides (W5, D2, L1). Looks like Reading will have to score at least once to get anything from the game as Reading have failed to keep a clean sheet at Griffin Park since the days of Steve Death and 17 Sep 1973 came along. That's a total of almost exactly 45 years and 21 games (but then Reading have only ever kept 2 clean sheets in the league at Griffin Park so perhaps that isn't really a surprise).
How to follow the game
- Get a ticket and travel to Griffin Park
- 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)