When : Saturday 9 April 2022, 3pm
Where : SCL Stadium, Reading, RG2 0FL
Capacity : 24,161
A week shy of exactly a year ago Cardiff City came to town and took the lead from an 87th minute penalty, Reading hit back in injury time though to get a share of the spoils and that is the essence of what Reading need to be showing in these renaining games, fight to last whistle. Yes that game was dreadful and Reading were on the way to throwing away a place in the play offs but at least the player’s heads didn’t drop and they got something at the death and if Reading can keep that attitude they will hopefully get away with things this season.
After the Stoke pointage Reading now have 8 points worth of a cushion between them and the bottom 3 and Barnsley’s GD is only 2 better than Reading as well which is a figure that can easily change for the better in the remaining games. Next comes the hard bit of “turning the screw” and keeping the pressure tightly on the clubs below and it starts with Cardiff’s visit on Saturday. A win here more or less makes the likely nothing that will follow at Bramall Lane no issue whatsoever - plus it could put the Biscuitmen just 1 point behind Hull City (who are at the Riverside on Saturday).
Cardiff are safe in 17th on 46 points so haven’t had a season they’d want to remember. This means they’re basically a team of players playing for contracts for next season and little else, which may mean a team there for the taking or it may mean a team that is relaxed and consequently quite calm and very difficult to play against. As this is Reading I think I’ll expect the latter of those two options on the day.
Form for the Bluebirds is either 3 league wins in the last 8 or 3 league wins in the last 5 and they will have had a clear week to prepare for the game so may well be a bit fresher for the game itself. In addition their last away game was at Loftus Road where they beat the other blue and white hooped team by 2 to 1.
Thankfully Kieffer Moore left them in January but Jordan Hugill arrived on loan from Norwich to maintain what can be a very serious forward threat. Midfielder Ruben Colwill is one to watch as is defender Aden Flint and they can cause problems from set pieces so one hopes the Reading defence don’t spend the afternoon putting those sort of opportunities on a plate. You can add long throw specialist Will Vaulks to the mix too as things can get fairly scary as a game wears on and especially so if there is a lead for Reading to defend.
Cardiff’s stock of ex-Reading players currently runs to 4; Leandro Bacuna seems to have fallen out of favour recently, Sean Morrison is injured so will miss the game, Matthew Connolly is a doubt for the match after 2 months out injured and Uche Ikpeazu is the perennial super sub with 3 goals in 10 sub appearances since joining on loan from Middlesbrough in January.
In addition to the aforementioned Max Watters will also miss Cardiff’s afternoon while Reading will be without Halilovic, Araruna, Meite and Rinomhota. Hopefully no-one else will join those 4 after the Stoke exertions but this is Reading and we’ve all seen players get injured when the club supposedly shouldn’t be doing anything more than light training. Lastly Tom Ince should be back in the mix for selection and Junior Hoilett should be more than up for things as he gets up close with his old mates from the land of the valleys and song.
Lastly, just for the record, Saturday sees Peterborough travel to Bristol City while Swansea entertain Derby and Barnsley drop in on Millwall.
Referee
Michael “one Reading game a year” Salisbury
Previously....
21 Apr 21 > Luton Town 0-0 Reading
20 Jun 20 > Reading 1-1 Stoke City
21 Dec 19 > Reading 3-0 Derby County
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 63 league games with this game being the 32nd at home against them. Of the previous 31 games Reading have won 13 and drawn 12 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 12 games in all competitions, though most of those games finished all square at 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 20 attempts.
How to follow the game
- Get ticket and go
- Listen to Radio 5 Live and/or a myriad of other radio stations for score flashes
- Ring/text a mate for updates
- Use a RoyalTV subscription
- BBC Radio Berkshire (FM : 104.4, 104.1 or 95.4 depending where you are in the area)
