When : Saturday 29th April 2023, 3pm
Where : Madejski Stadium, Reading, RG2 0FL
Capacity : 24,161
As Reading’s miserable season comes to an end the club are essentially left with 2 must win games. While the good news is they have played all the good teams in the division and are left with 2 bad teams, the bad news is that these 2 teams also very much have something to play for and have been proving some use at getting something from their games with something to play for while Reading have been proven to largely be absolutely ******* useless.
The problems with these two games are a) one of them is away from home and b) the other is a home game against Wigan who usually find the easiest three points of their season in RG2 especially in must win games (remember the terrific Reading showing the last time these two clubs met in the Premier League or the last time Reading really needed to beat Wigan at home a couple of years ago as the Latics slumped to relegation? No. Well let me remind you of 180 minutes of utterly appalling football resulting in 0 (ZERO) Reading goals (and probably less shots!) and 6 (SIX) conceded!) Now it’s not a foregone conclusion that Wigan will do Reading over yet again as Reading did win 3-2 when the chips were down and Gomes was managing, but it should be noted that even in that game Reading were only saved by two very very late goals as the club had yet again gone out of it’s way to turn in a largely pathetic stink of a performance so I really don’t see this one being even remotely “comfortable” in any conceivable way.
Indeed after looking dead and buried a couple of weeks back Wigan have started doing something unheard of in Reading for months and months - winning games of football! Hell they’ve even won an away game and are consequently on a roll of 6 points from the last 6 points available and with their last game of the season being a visit from the merry Millers of Rotherham the Latics will be more than hopeful of producing a Houdini act so Reading need to finally wake up and start “smelling the coffee”.
Their threat seems to come mainly from Will Keane (12 goals) though their midfield is pretty helpful in matters, having chipped in with a good 11 goals, so Reading really need to be well prepared all over the park and to not get caught out.
Wigan have four players injured; Ben Amos, Daniel Sinani, Jason Kerr and Martin Kelly while like most of the season Reading have a standard whole team’s worth of players out, though it is possible that Meite and/or Ince could return while Carroll sits out the final game of his ban.
Basically if Reading lose this game (and bear in mind Wigan will be relegated if they don’t win so will have no choice but to “go for it”) then that’s effectively going to be it for the club in the top two divisions for **** knows how many seasons and they’ll be spending the next one trying to improve their ******* abysmal away record at places like Burton, Fleetwood and Port Vale.
Most importantly, before all this though, Cardiff will be travelling to Rotherham on Thursday for a game in which we really need the Millers to get 3 points so Cardiff remain as fully up for things as possible against Huddersfield on Sunday (as well as leaving Reading with 2 conceivable targets on Bank Holiday Monday when all this cr@p finally stops for another summer). A Cardiff win on Thursday wouldn’t be utterly awful so long as they still turn the terriers over on Sunday though that would be the worst result possible if Huddersfield then went and won in Wales.
Referee
Andy Davies
Previously
18 Oct 22 > Swansea City 3-2 Reading
23 Nov 21 > Reading 0-1 Sheffield United
16 Oct 21 > Reading 1-0 Barnsley
20 Oct 20 > Reading 1-0 Wycombe Wanderers
07 Mar 20 > Birmingham City 1-3 Reading
08 Feb 20 > Reading 1-1 Hull City
18 Aug 19 > Reading 3-0 Cardiff City
09 Mar 19 > Reading 3-2 Wigan Athletic
26 Dec 18 > Millwall 1-0 Reading
02 Oct 18 > Reading 0-1 Queens Park Rangers
28 Feb 18 > Reading 1-3 Sheffield United
19 Sep 17 > Reading 0-2 Swansea City (LC)
07 Mar 17 > Reading 0-0 Newcastle United
26 Dec 16 > Reading 3-1 Norwich City
29 Oct 16 > Reading 2-0 Nottingham Forest
06 Aug 16 > Reading 1-0 Preston North End
15 Sep 15 > Reading 0-1 Derby County
Historically
Wigan are one of the very few clubs that Reading have played in all four divisions. There have been twenty three previous visits from the Latics for league points and more often than not the outcome is decisive as there’s only been two draws (both 1-1) in that time.
Of the remaining twenty games Reading have won thirteen to Wigan’s eight but Wigan have won 4 of the last 6 games played in Reading.
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 a RoyalTV subscription
- BBC Radio Berkshire (FM : 104.4, 104.1 or 95.4 depending where you are in the area)
