News and Views
Wigan Need Win And Royals Need Point As Sides Meet
28 April 2017
By Hob Nob Anyone?
Wigan Athletic visit the Madejski Stadium this Saturday afternoon in a game with huge significance for both sides. A point for the Royals will guarantee a play-off finish at the end of the season. Meanwhile, only a win is good enough for Wigan who need a maximum six points from their two remaining games to have any chance of staying up.
The Latics look set for League 1 football next season unless they can pull off a great escape which will also need Birmingham and Blackburn to lose their remaining games. The Royals could also be set for the play-offs regardless of results in our last two games with a six point cushion between us and seventh placed Leeds United. Whatever the result on Saturday there is a reasonable chance both sides will have their fate confirmed giving a contrast of emotions in the ground.
Reading will be looking to follow up their 3-0 away victory at Wigan in November. The margin of that win is massive compared to the majority of our victories this season and we will be hoping that home advantage will increase our chances of picking up the full six points from Wigan this season. Reading were 2-0 up at Wigan after just five minutes thanks to two goals from Gareth McCleary. McCleary should be back in the starting line-up this weekend to give him a chance at finding the net again.
Yann Kermorgant sealed that win at Wigan with a second half penalty to make it 3-0. Kermorgant enters this games on an amazing run of form having scored 7 goals in the last 7 games. What is even more impressive is he hasn't started all of those fixtures. Kermorgant has discovered his best form of the season at exactly the right time - and we will all be hoping the entire team follows suit with two going before entering the decisive play-off fixtures.
The injury list for Reading looks familiar with Tiago Illori, Paul McShane and Joey van den Berg all likely to miss out. Otherwise Jaap Stam has plenty of players available for selection, and it will be interesting to see if he mixes things up ahead of the play-offs or goes full strength to secure a best possible Championship finish for the Royals.
Discussion On This Story:
Sutekh
One point. That’s all that is needed. Just one more point to be able to extend this rather odd season by at least another two games.
Struggling Wigan are the next visitors for the last regulation home game of the season and they can’t afford to sit back and defend as Wigan need to win both their remaining games to have a remotest chance of staying up and even then it’d take a lot of other results to go their way.
They do have some pretty useful players about them though in the likes of Nick Powell, Gabriel Obertan, one time rumoured Reading target Omar Bogle and the wonderfully named Max Power.
Reading will be without Berg and McShane so another permutation of those that have been selected in recent weeks will be applied again while Wigan will be without Will Grigg with a knee injury.
Referee
Tim Robinson from West Sussex will be officiating
Previously
01 Oct 16 > Reading 1-1 Derby County
02 Feb 16 > Ipswich Town 2-1 Reading
21 Sep 13 > Derby County 1-3 Reading
So no clean sheets for either teams in those games then….
Historically
This will be the 21st league game in Reading between the two teams. Reading have won 11 of the previous 20 games and gained a couple of 1-1 draws. However Wigan have won on each of their last 3 visits to the Madejski Stadium and as we’ve seen with opposition on similar runs, e.g. QPR, Reading seem to be just as eager as the opposition to leave things just as they are.
genome
Shots fired by the OS as well:
We want to see the stadium packed on Saturday… and no excuses! At every home matchday, seats are left empty by Season Ticket holders who don’t show up. Cancel your other plans – come and get behind the boys for one last push!
Read more at
Sutekh
East Stand should be pretty full but the other two stands is anyone's guess as it's been pretty pathetic showing there most of the season.
However with with it being the last game of the league season and the fact we should really seal a play off place I would hope that those two stands will be full at least which should take us over the 20k mark
BR2
No point getting annoyed.
It's not as if big crowd support is needed to roar our boys across the line-it has been more a case of sleeping through these recent games as we wait for the ones that really matter post-season..
I expect with it being a holiday weekend and unattractive opposition the crowd to be around 15,500.
. More annoyed on behalf of the owners than taking personal offence to it.Nameless
Having said that I can see it being well under 20k which will be a shame.
The one concern I have over the summer is that Stam will decide that Reading fans don't care and he'd rather wrk somewhere with a bit of passion and accepts the West Ham job....
percy_freeman
Sutekh
And if Reading are in the play-offs no doubt you'll get to do it all over again next month.....
bobby1413
This is what I heard:
Ady: now Tim. Here is a stat for you and it really demonstrates how stats can be read in various ways. Wigan have won 2 of their last 4. Correct?
Tim: Yep that is right.
Ady: Well... they've won 2 of their last 4. But .... they've won 2 of their last 8!!! It's the same stat isn't it?!
Me and Tim:
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