31 March 2017
By Hob Nob Anyone?
After the international break, the Royals return to Championship action this weekend, playing Leeds United at the Madejski Stadium with a 5:30pm kick-off on Saturday. The game has been shifted to later in the day to allow Sky TV to screen the match live as both sides look to vital points to close in on a play-off finish. Immediately before the two week break, Reading put a poor run of form behind them to win away from home at play-off rivals Sheffield Wednesday. That huge result swung a play-off finish back in Reading's favour when they had looked in danger of dropping out. With that result and seventh placed Fulham losing at home to Wolves, Reading find themselves with a six point cushion keeping them inside the top six. A win over Leeds on Saturday, which is a big ask, would see Reading move back up to fourth with seven games of the season remaining.
It is rapidly approaching make or break time and this is our toughest, most important home fixture remaining. After Leeds we only have Blackburn, Rotherham and Wigan visiting Reading - which are surely all winable games as we look to finish the season on a high. Leeds come into the match having beaten second placed Brighton in their last fixture and have gone seven games without league defeat. Their last three games on the road have seen them pick up an impressive five points to keep them narrowly above the Royals in the table. With recent wins over Brighton and Sheffield Wednesday and a draw away at Fulham they probably fancy their chances of picking up a point or more.
The international break gave no new worries for Jaap Stam, whose available players seems to grow every week. Reece Oxford and John Swift both made appearances for England's younger sides and returned without injury. The break gave Paul McShane and Liam Kelly opportunities to continue their recoveries from injuries and both players will hope to be involved on Saturday. For Leeds United Kalvin Phillips returns from suspension but they will be without defender Luke Ayling.
Reading will be looking to reverse a bad run of recent results against Leeds. In our last five games we have failed to score in four of them. That run includes two goalless draws and three defeats. We lost 0-2 at Leeds earlier this season and picked up a point from them in the last campaign with the highlight, if you can call that, being a 0-0 home draw. A draw wouldn't be a terrible result, but if we can pick up three points it really will feel like a play-off finish is more likely than not.
| DATE | COMPETITION | OPPOSITION | SCORE | REPORT |
| 13 December 2016 | Championship | Leeds (Away) | L: 0-2 | Read report... |
| 16 April 2016 | Championship | Leeds (Away) | L: 2-3 | Read report... |
| 16 August 2015 | Championship | Leeds (HOME) | D: 0-0 | Read report... |
| 10 February 2015 | Championship | Leeds (HOME) | L: 0-2 | Read report... |
| 01 October 2014 | Championship | Leeds (Away) | D: 0-0 | Read report... |
| 11 March 2014 | Championship | Leeds (Away) | W: 4-2 | Read report... |
| 18 September 2013 | Championship | Leeds (HOME) | W: 1-0 | Read report... |
| 06 April 2012 | Championship | Leeds (HOME) | W: 2-0 | Read report... |
| 17 December 2011 | Championship | Leeds (Away) | W: 1-0 | Read report... |
| 22 April 2011 | Championship | Leeds (Away) | D: 0-0 | Read report... |
| 27 November 2010 | Championship | Leeds (HOME) | D: 0-0 | Read report... |
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