When : Saturday 29th January 2022, 3pm
Where : Loftus Road Stadium, South Africa Road, London, W12 7PA
Capacity : 18,439
Reading’s continuing disaster of a season next rocks up at Loftus Road for a struggle with a fairly decent QPR.
The management of Reading rather surprisingly started with two strikers against Huddersfield and as a result the team looked fairly useful in attack and had the management got the midfield balance right the club might have got something from the game. Whether we now all go back to one up front remains to be seen but the “experiment” at least shows there might be some entertainment in the opponent’s penalty area for a change rather than what we’ve all become used to this season.
The fakes are 4th in the division so yet another game against a team in rather good form but at least there is a little bit of hope now (at least for a week or two) as not only has the thought the management suddenly aren’t afraid of playing two up front but there are rumours that the injury volumes might be starting to look more like an injury leaflet.
QPR are on a run of 4 and possibly 5 (as they are scheduled to play Swansea at home tonight) straight wins so this is going to be a very difficult game. Goals regularly arrive from a number of players; Lyndon Dykes (6), Ilias Chair (6), Charlie Austin (4), Chris Willock (6) and Andre Gray (5) so it’s really a case of stopping the supply and service to the Rangers’ attacking players which may mean the management return to the tried and trusted(!) one up front in an effort to fill out midfield and defence to stop the opponents playing - and we all know how well that works.
On the injury front QPR will be without Sam McCallum and Stefan Johansen, while the aforementioned Ilias Chair (Morocco) and Seny Dieng (Senegal) are both still involved at AFCON. As alluded to earlier, Reading’s catalogue seems to have become a much more normal for a club and has actually dropped below five crocks for the first time since practically the opening games of the season with only Scott Dann, Felipe Araruna, Yakou Meite and possibly Jokull Andresson on the treatment table. However both Liam Moore and Junior Hoilett will also miss the game due to World Cup duty with Jamaica and Canada respectively.
Lastly, the new loan signing from Arsenal, Karl Jakob Hein, will probably take over in goal from Luke Southwood so what effect that’ll have on things is a total unknown. He is highly rated and despite being only 19, and having never played a domestic English game, is the current Estonian international keeper (12 caps since Sep 2020). There is also a bit of form for him to follow as Mart Poom was fairly useful keeper who was a full international at 20 when Estonia became an actual thing in international terms.
Referee
Jeremy Simpson
Previously
20 Oct 2021 > Reading 2-3 Blackpool
02 Jan 2021 > Huddersfield 1-2 Reading
28 Nov 2020 > Reading 3-1 Bristol City
29 Feb 2020 > Reading 2-0 Barnsley
30 Nov 2019 > Wigan Athletic 1-3 Reading
22 Oct 2019 > Queens Park Rangers 2-2 Reading
23 Feb 2019 > Reading 1-1 Rotherham United
22 Sep 2018 > Reading 3-0 Hull City
21 Apr 2018 > Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 Reading
14 Oct 2017 > Leeds United 0-1 Reading
31 Jan 2017 > Birmingham City 0-1 Reading
17 Dec 2016 > Blackburn Rovers 2-3 Reading
09 Sep 2016 > Reading 2-1 Ipswich Town (managed to book 9 players)
16 Apr 2016 > Leeds United 3-2 Reading
09 Jan 2016 > Huddersfield Town 2-2 Reading (FA Cup 3)
20 Oct 2015 > Rotherham United 1-1 Reading
Historically
QPR and Reading are regular opponents. Right back into Victorian times they’ve been knocking six bells out of each other with the only gap of any real note being when QPR caught a bout of ambition back in the late 60s which saw them disappear into Loftusier circulation for the best part of 3 decades. Luckily Reading had been successfully vaccinated against ambition at some point in the mid 1950s and so managed to avoid such pretensions until well into the 1990s.
Yet despite this and the ongoing protestations from both camps over who has the actual right to wear blue and white hoops this is another of those should be derby games that aren’t derby games.
So this is the 48th season and 96th time the two clubs have gone in search of Football League points. It’s therefore the 48th visit to the “Meccano bowl”, that hybrid matchbox of steel and wood that masquerades as a football stadium down in deepest, darkest Shepherd’s Bush.
As you’d probably expect the home side has had much the better of things with Reading managing only 12 victories compared to the 20 so far notched by the “fakes”. Finally Reading recent run is 2 wins in the last 9 league trips to this part of West London.
How to follow the game
- Get a ticket (if you can afford it)
- 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)
Would love to pick up any sort of result on Saturday. 
