Royals Set To Lose At Cardiff But Stay Up

05 May 2018
By Hob Nob Anyone?

Reading enter the final day of the Championship tomorrow knowing that there is still an outside chance of relegation, after a hugely disappointing season. The Royals will be relegated to League One if they lose at Cardiff, Birmingham draw or win, and both Barnsley and Burton also win their games. It's a hugely unlikely situation and the most likely outcome remains a solid defeat for Reading at Cardiff City and Reading staying up thanks to someone else dropping vital points at the bottom of the table.

Cardiff City need a victory to guarantee second place in the table and promotion to the Premier League. Reading are seen as perfect opposition to pick up the three points they need. However, if Reading could somehow cause a shock, then just a single point would guarantee our survival regardless of other results. Sky have chosen to screen the game live (12:30pm kick-off) so they can capture the scenes as Cardiff secure promotion. It will be a strange day for Reading fans if everything goes as expected and we secure safety on the back of another heavy defeat.

Final Day Fixtures - How Reading could still go down:

• Cardiff -v- Reading - First of all we would have to lose at Cardiff - obviously very likely.
• Birmingham -v- Fulham - Birmingham would need at least a point to move above us, which is going to be very difficult against a Fulham side who themselves have to win to have a chance of second place. Fulham will need Reading to help them out at Cardiff or it's the play-offs for them.
• Derby -v- Barnsley - Barnsley have to win at Derby. However Derby need at least a point to be sure of a play-off finish.
• Preston -v- Burton - Burton have to win at Preston. Preston must win to have any chance of catching Derby and stealing the last play-off place.

All the teams that need to get results to send Reading down are playing against teams that themselves need results to have a shot at promotion. It's unthinkable that both Barnsley and Burton could win on the road against play-off chasing teams. With everything considered it seems very unlikely that Reading could end up in the bottom three on the final day - but it's definitely not impossible.

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