Royals Well Overdue Win Over Wigan

17 February 2015
By Hob Nob Anyone?

Reading are firm favourites to record a league win tonight as second to bottom Wigan Athletic visit the Madejski. Wigan are nine points adrift of safety and are already been written off as relegation certainties alongside bottom side Blackpool. However, Reading's last home fixture saw a 0-2 reverse against Leeds United who were below Reading in the table at the time. The Royals were also expected to beat Leeds after impressing against Sheffield Wednesday and Wolves.

Since that Leeds defeat we've secured our quarter final place in the FA Cup with last Saturday's surprise 2-1 win at Derby County, and Reading will be hoping to continue that style of performance and put the Leeds result behind them. The Royals have lost just that single game in the last six and have won four of those fixtures.

Wigan haven't won a game since last December, which was a 2-0 win at Leeds. Since that win they've been dumped out of the FA Cup while losing six and drawing two out of eight. They've had a poor season all round but seem to have hit a new low in their form as they come to Reading.

Yakubu will attract plenty of attention tonight after his FA Cup winner at Derby when he shook off the attention of two defenders to finish in style. Yakubu has played just two twenty minute slots from the bench since signing for Reading, and there is media speculation that he may be handed his first Reading start tonight. Garath McCleary is likely to miss out again with his knee injury and Chris Gunter's injury drags on and on. He was expected to miss a couple of games but has missed longer than expected as he continues to recover.

Reading have lost four out of their last five games with Wigan. We started this season with a 2-2 draw at Wigan with two former players - Cummings and Morrison - scoring the goals. Last season we lost both encounters including a 1-2 home defeat - so the Royals are long overdue a win over Wigan.

• Reading -v- Wigan - Recent Meetings

Reading and Wigan - Head to head record (since August 1994)
Games Between Reading and Wigan	23
Reading Wins	7
Wigan Wins	10
Draws	6
Reading Goals	23
Wigan Goals	32
Average Goals Per Game	2.39

 

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