Despite no fixture, the Royals have had a busy weekend completing the signings of Josh Knight and Jamie Reid as they strengthen the squad with the transfer deadline window set to close. Defender Josh Knight will be with Reading for the rest of the season on-loan from Portsmouth. Knight spent three years at Peterborough before a short move to Hannover was followed by a return to England at Portsmouth. Knight was a late sub in Portsmouth's win at Lincoln last week but before that his last competitive match was in November 2025.
Meanwhile 32 year old forward Jamie Reid has signed a two year contract with Reading. Reid has been at Stevenage for five years and has made well over 200 appearances for the club scoring 69 goals in all appearances. Reid has loads of experience at Reading's level and scored 14 League One goals last season for Stevenage. He is also a Northern Ireland international and scored in their 3-1 World Cup qualifier in Luxembourg last September. Reid has played 12 times for his country, scoring twice.
Prior to joining Stevenage, Reid had loan spells at Truro and Torquay while at Exeter. He then went on to sign for Torquay and was very successful averaging a goal every other game. He was less successful at Mansfield before a move to Stevenage improved his fortunes again. Reading fans will be hoping he can recreate his form in the blue and white hoops.
Knight and Reid Signings Completed
From the Discussion
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PT Pepe the Horseman 30 Aug 2026 · 8:13pm
Pete O'Rourke reckons we're close to signing him. 32 year old with 57 goals in 211 apps for Stevenage.
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BR Brogue 30 Aug 2026 · 8:21pm
My initial thoughts were ffs this is dreadful. But on second thoughts and looking at his stats 1 in 4 in league one I’m ok with this. I think. It’s a difficult position really who is going to want to come and sit on the bench behind Marriott. Either a youngster or someone at the end of their career at 32 we can probably get a couple of seasons out of him and getting a 1 in 4 striker in as a back up is probably the best we could hope for.
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MO morganb 30 Aug 2026 · 9:04pm
Weirdly, I saw Jamie Reid mentioned on Twitter earlier and it was to do with him going to Wycombe to play up front with Wareham!
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WF West F 30 Aug 2026 · 10:22pm
My initial thoughts are, it is very Wycombey and very cheap. Smacks of a lack of ambition and forward thinking in a last chicken in Sainsbury’s type way. In fact, i would rather throw a year at Will Keane over signing a target man from the most agricultural team in the league. Keep your money and spend it on more fireworks.
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WE WestYorksRoyal 30 Aug 2026 · 11:33pm
Really meh signing. Smart business, but not a statement signing with the potential to play at a higher level in the future. Clearly 4th or 5th choice on the club's list. But who knows, perhaps a L1 Yann Kermogant?
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7B 72 bus 31 Aug 2026 · 12:05am
I take it that you haven’t seen Will Keane play for Reading ?
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CL Clyde1998 31 Aug 2026 · 12:14am
I have to agree. Although (as someone pointed out on a different thread) if Marriott's fit, he's our first choice. We'll struggle to get a properly inspiring striker in, as most would want to be the first choice. This guy's goalscoring record is fairly decent at this level (just over a goal every three full matches): Season Mins Gls M/G G/90 2023-24 3,417 18 190 0.47 2024-25 3,067 8 383 0.23 2025-26 3,641 14 260 0.35 2026-27 164 0 N/A N/A Overall 10,289 40 257 0.35 Should be okay for a season (perhaps a 1+1), given he's just turned thirty-two.
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BL blythspartan 31 Aug 2026 · 7:05am
I tend to block out all of the bravado from the owners and I don’t see this as a bad signing. Although I don’t believe we’ll finish top 6 I do feel that our best 13/14 players are good enough to compete with anyone in L1. If Azeez gets sold maybe that cash will be used in January to strengthen the squad. It was never going to be a quick fix so my expectations are fairly low, but you just never know in football.
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SU Sutekh 31 Aug 2026 · 7:34am
Really :| on this. Good numbers it seems, career 1 goal every 3.5 games but then you find out that he’s 32 :D This would leave Reading with two strikers with a combined age of 63! The best thing I can see about him is that in his 5 seasons at Stevenage he’s played in 211 of their 230 league games (approx. a 97% availability record) so might last as many as 5 games before we break him :shock: Be good if he was as well as Kanu but this smacks of Rob trying to pull off the same trick twice. No doubt we’ll get Jamie Vardy next season. Probably cost more than he’d like though as Stevenage will probably want a premium for letting their… More →
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ST Stranded 31 Aug 2026 · 8:03am
We are recruiting for a guy to basically come and sit on the bench and fill in for the 10/15 games that Marriott will likely miss. We look like are signing a striker who was top scorer for a side who made the L1 play-offs last season to essentially sit on the bench and come on with 25 mins left to give us a different option up top. A player who has also been first choice in their opening 2 games and only missed the weekend as it is clear he is leaving. Yes it would be preferable if he were a bit younger but if he signs we will have the 7th and 11th top scorers in League 1 last season as our 2 main options, Brown as 3rd choice and… More →
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HO Hound 31 Aug 2026 · 8:23am
Well we definitely need someone and his record is solid at this level Not an exciting signing as such but maybe a sensible short-ish term one
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MC MR. CYNICAL 31 Aug 2026 · 8:59am
A league 2 player and below for the majority of his career apart from his last 2 or 3 seasons with Stevenage