When : Saturday 2nd March, 3pm
Where : Portman Road, Ipswich,
Capacity : 30,311
Away Stand : One side of the upper tier of the Cobbold Stand
What might I see in the area : Lots of equally depressed supporters milling around aimlessly harking back to the good old days and trying not to think too hard about going to Accrington and Fleetwood on a Tuesday night
The shambles continues. Reading take their dreadful away record to Ipswich for the battle of the hopeless.
It takes something quite special to play league games away from home in the second division of the English league and manage to win just once. Still there have been a few draws to be had so it’s not as bad as it could be in that time but 1 win from 26 attempts is rather impressive.
Ipswich, as we know, have had a bad time of it this year and it looks odds on that the longest current serving members of the second division will end their 17 years service and return to the third division for the first time in 62 years.
The form of the home side is as wretched as Reading’s with just one win in their last 12 league games (however it should noted that that one league win was at home against Rotherham something which Reading failed miserably to match last time out). On the upside for the Tractor Boys they are on a run of 3 undefeated after three 1-1 draws and they have also scored in 9 of their last 10 home games.
Reading will be up against it as Ipswich will probably see this as the last chance saloon a win would just about keep their slimmest belief in a miracle alive while a defeat would set them 12 points adrift of safety and really all but extinguish their life in the top divisions. So Reading will have to conjure up something resembling a fight and win the right to play the way they want as turning up and sitting back and playing deep with slow passing just isn’t going to cut it.
Ipswich have both manager Paul Lambert and defender Jonas Knudsen suspended. In addition Emyr Huws, Tom Adeyemi, Grant Ward, Freddie Sears and Jack Lancaster all have long term injuries.
In Reading’s camp Bodvarsson was added to the injury list before the Rotherham game but there’s no indication as to the severity of his problem so perhaps he might be in contention but at any rate I can’t see much change in the personnel from the last couple of games.
I think Reading really need attack Ipswich from the off and therefore also use that as their best form of defence (well while there is no midfield “bite” anyway). Play with both Barrow and Harriott who are rather quick so play with width and make Ipswich do the worrying.
Referee
Darren England is due to take the mantle for this one, still searching for his first Reading success.
Previously
06 Oct 2018 > West Bromwich Albion 4-1 Reading
25 Aug 2018 > Aston Villa 1-1 Reading
13 Jan 2018 > Hull City 0-0 Reading
Historically
This will be the 30th league visit to Ipswich Town. Of the previous 29 games Reading have won 8 and lost 16 scoring 38 and conceding 52 in the process.
Current from there isn’t particularly impressive with 1 draw earned from the last 3 trips so at least you could say another Reading win is about due.
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)
