When : Saturday September 28, 12.30pm
Where : SCL Stadium, Reading, RG2 0FL
Capacity : 24,161
The first Saturday lunch time home game for the telly fixtures of the season and there'll be a bit of a run of these with Reading's home games up to Christmas but at least it's a better ko time than getting dumped with Thursday, Friday or Monday evening starts.
So, for the first home game since the realisation to most that Dai has no intention of selling the club on sensible terms, we have a visit from a Huddersfield team that really should be play off bound at the very least so this is yet another request of Ruben and the players to dig deep and turn out a top performance rather like that v Charlton and certainly not like the dire tripe that was presented v Orient last time out.
Huddersfield have only been beaten once on their league travels so far, 2-1 at Rotherham, their last away trip produced a 4-0 stuffing of Bolton where Reading didn't really get going last week. However they do have issues that can be exploited as their 3-1 loss at home to Northampton last weekend shows.
Another team with a lot of changes of over the summer (around 10 arrivals, 3 of which are on loan) but manager Michael Duff has them playing together quite well and got them to 5th place on 12 points already. Forward Josh Koroma is leading the way with 4 goals followed closely by midfielder Ben Wiles with 3 so it's likely to be a hard afternoon for Reading's defence to try and keep things quiet at the business end of the Terriers.
What state of mind will be dominating the players remains to be seen but it is hoped fans will show plenty of vociferous and positive support for the team and management throughout the game rather than dwelling on the rather obvious other matters, though I'd expect there to be plenty of large visual banners etc. to cover that with the game being on the telly button thing that Sky offer.
Injuries will mean Button starting over Pereira and Abrefa over Dorsett while it is hoped Savage will return to put a bit more bite into midfield than that which was on display in Bolton on Saturday last.
Referee
Scott "no Reading wins out of 4 attempts" Oldham
Previously
20 Apr 24 > Burton Albion 3-2 Reading
03 Feb 24 > Oxford United 1-1 Reading
21 Oct 23 > Charlton Athletic 4-0 Reading
07 Apr 23 > Reading 1-1 Birmingham City
Historically
The first time Reading played Huddersfield was at Elm Park in October 1975, since then then there has been another 25 home league games and, overall, Reading have the edge by 13 wins to 5 and have scored 42 to the Terrier’s 29. Recently though it’s been pretty poor for Reading with just 2 wins from the last 8 home league games.
How to follow the game
- Get a ticket and go
- Sky red button thing
- Listen to Radio 5 Live and/or a myriad of other radio stations for score flashes
- Ring/text a mate for updates
- Use a RoyalsTV subscription
- BBC Radio Berkshire (FM : 104.4, 104.1 or 95.4 depending where you are in the area)
(and it's not Ghostbusters).
