News and Views
Swift On The Bench For Must Win Match
16 April 2021
By Hob Nob Anyone?
John Swift will be on the bench as he makes his latest return from injury as Reading take on Cardiff City at the Madejski Stadium this evening. The match is live on Sky Sports and kick-off is at 6pm. The Royals must win the match to keep in touch with the top six as they currently find themselves in seventh place - five points behind both Bournemouth and Barnsley with just five games left to play.
With Reading still to play Swansea and Norwich before the end of the season, nothing but a win will do tonight and it is likely that even that won't be enough after Reading's poor form has seen them drop out of the top six.
Omar Richard is fully fit and will be back in the starting eleven in place of Lewis Gibson, and Lucas Joao will make a start after being dropped to the bench for Reading's last two fixtures. Joao was on the scoresheet earlier this season as the Royals won 2-1 at Cardiff - back when we were top of the Championship. Puscas failed to take Reading's best chance against Watford and will find himself back on the bench for Cardiff's visit.
Reading Team: Rafael, Yiadom, Holmes, Moore, Richards, Laurent, Rinomhota, Ejaria, Olise, Joao, Meite. Subs: Southwood, Gibson, Esteves, Tetek, Semedo, Aluko, Puscas, Baldock, Swift.
Reading are unbeaten in their last ten games against Cardiff.
Recent Matches with Cardiff:
DATE | OPPOSITION | COMPETITION | SCORE | REPORT | ATT | POS | SCORERS |
26 September 2020 | Cardiff (Away) | Championship | W: 2-1 | Report... | 0 | 1 | M Morrison, L Joao |
04 February 2020 | Cardiff (Away) | FA Cup | D: 3-3 | Report... | 4832 | - | O Richards, A Rinomhota, Y Meite |
31 January 2020 | Cardiff (Away) | Championship | D: 1-1 | Report... | 22518 | 15 | Y Meite |
25 January 2020 | Cardiff (HOME) | FA Cup | D: 1-1 | Report... | 12798 | - | Y Meite |
18 August 2019 | Cardiff (HOME) | Championship | W: 3-0 | Report... | 14252 | 17 | G Puscas, G Puscas, J Swift |
06 May 2018 | Cardiff (Away) | Championship | D: 0-0 | Report... | 32478 | 20 | |
11 December 2017 | Cardiff (HOME) | Championship | D: 2-2 | Report... | 16670 | 14 | C Paterson, M Barrow |
28 January 2017 | Cardiff (HOME) | Championship | W: 2-1 | Report... | 18558 | 3 | J Swift, Y Kermorgant |
27 August 2016 | Cardiff (Away) | Championship | W: 1-0 | Report... | 15013 | 15 | Y Kermorgant |
19 March 2016 | Cardiff (HOME) | Championship | D: 1-1 | Report... | 17407 | 17 | G McCleary |
07 November 2015 | Cardiff (Away) | Championship | L: 0-2 | Report... | 15414 | 8 | |
04 April 2015 | Cardiff (HOME) | Championship | D: 1-1 | Report... | 17953 | 19 | P Pogrebnyak |
24 January 2015 | Cardiff (Away) | FA Cup | W: 2-1 | Report... | 11750 | - | O Norwood, H Robson-Kanu |
21 November 2014 | Cardiff (Away) | Championship | L: 1-2 | Report... | 20643 | 15 | M Hector |
Discussion On This Story:
Sutekh
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/11/Reading_FC.svg/200px-Reading_FC.svg.png)
![](http://b.smimg.net/11/41/300x225_cardiffcity.jpg)
When : Friday 16 April 2021, 6pm
Where : Madejski Stadium, Reading, RG2 0FL
Capacity : 24,161
The fight for points goes on and another game that Reading really must not lose hoves into view and this week it’s the turn of Cardiff City to take their chances at the Mad Stad.
The Bluebirds have been a bit of everything this season, starting off as OK but nothing spectacular they hit a dreadful run of defeats which saw Neil Harris replaced by the wily Mick McCarthy and it was no real surprise that his arrival saw the club start collecting points like they were going out of fashion and consequently getting talked up as play off hopefuls. However the necessary game of catch-up appears to have caught up with them recently and they are now on a run of 0 wins in 3 games and 1 win in the last 7 but that win was at Swansea so they remain capable if Reading do not do their homework on them properly.
Kieffer Moore is the right royal pain in the neck that Reading will need to be particularly watchful of as he has bagged 16 goals from his 37 appearances. Then there’s Joe Ralls and Will Vaulks who seem to be regular nuisances to Reading plus Cardiff’s ex Reading contingent of Sean Morrison and Leandro Bacuna. Finally we should all be able to see what we missed as one time rumoured Reading target, Perry Ng, joined Cardiff in January and has pretty much played every game since.
Sean Morrison should have recovered from injury for Cardiff while Reading will hope to finally be able to name John Swift in the matchday squad. Tom McIntyre and Michael Morrison remain sidelined though Omar Richards should return to the starting XI.
And, finally, it's on the telly and so Reading will be trying for their 7th win from the last 27 games live on Sky.
Referee
John “no Reading wins” Brooks
Previously....
04 Nov 20 > Reading 0-3 Preston North End
04 Jan 20 > Reading 2-2 Blackpool (FA Cup 3)
27 Apr 19 > Middlesbrough 2-1 Reading
09 Feb 19 > Sheffield Wednesday 0-0 Reading
26 Jan 18 > Sheffield Wednesday 3-1 Reading (FA Cup 4)
23 Dec 17 > Reading 1-2 Burton Albion
Historically
Cardiff are one of those fairly regular opponents of Reading with games stretching all the way back to Southern League days. Since joining the FL though there have been 61 league games with this game being the 31st at home against them. Of the previous 30 games Reading have won 13 and drawn 11 with the remaining 6 games going the way of the Welsh
Reading though have not been having the best of times at home against Cardiff recently as only 2 wins have been mustered from the last 11 games in all competitions though most of those games finished as 1-1.
Finally, Reading are really cr@p at keeping clean sheets in home league fixtures against Cardiff having managed only one in the last 19 attempts.
How to follow the game
- Listen to Radio 5 Live and/or a myriad of other radio stations for score flashes
- Ring/text a mate for updates
- Use an iFollow subscription
- BBC Radio Berkshire (FM : 104.4, 104.1 or 95.4 depending where you are in the area)
- It’s on SKY
Mid Sussex Royal
They actually have some good players, but midfield is completely bypassed as any throw ins in our half will be hurled into the box by Vaulks with the big centre halves coming forward, and the keeper takes all dead ball situations in their half and kicks long to Moore.
Its fine when you are winning and the fans tolerate it but when the results go the other way they soon get restless as happened at Ipswich and indeed at Reading all those years ago under Branfoot, despite the Simod success and promotion to the second tier.
Don't get me wrong its can be effective as a plan b or to counter opposition on occasion but generally (agree not always) the sides that go up are possession based sides.
Hendo
Although I’m not sure who you drop from that XI to get him in. Would have to be Ovie and shift Olise wide, I guess, but he’s been pretty decent last few games and I’m not a huge fan of Olise out wide.
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