When : Saturday 7 March 2020, 3pm
Where : St Andrews, Birmingham, B9 4RL
Capacity : 30,016
Away Stand : Gil Merrick Stand (lower tier)
Well, now the season is more or less realistically over, barring a catastrophic disaster in the points department in the remaining games, it’s all off to Birmingham City who are equally likely (least at the moment) to be not going anywhere or doing anything this season.
Back in December Birmingham were on a run of what turned out to be 1 win in 12 league games - and guess who the 1 win was against. Now it’s March and Birmingham find themselves on a run of 10 league games without defeat (W4, D6) and have drawn all of their last 4 games.
There are two players which must be kept quiet, Lukas Jutkiewicz with 13 goals from 36 games but much more important is keeping Scott Hogan out of the game as he is up to his old tricks of scoring for fun with 6 goals in 7 appearances since joining on loan from Villa in January.
The blues face a hard cup tie at Leicester on Wednesday night so like Reading will have has a busy week. They are likely to rest their latest superstar Jude Bellingham for that game but otherwise field a reasonably strong line up. They are likely to be missing Jeremy Bela due to a hamstring problem for the Reading game though.
Reading will be hoping everyone comes through the after effects of Sheffield United successfully with no one added to the injury list though just how fresh they will be after Tuesday will remain to be seen.
Referee
Andy Davies returns for his second Reading game in a month.
Previously...
08 Feb 20 > Reading 1-1 Hull City
18 Aug 19 > Reading 3-0 Cardiff City
09 Mar 19 > Reading 3-2 Wigan Athletic
26 Dec 18 > Millwall 1-0 Reading
02 Oct 18 > Reading 0-1 Queens Park Rangers
28 Feb 18 > Reading 1-3 Sheffield United
19 Sep 17 > Reading 0-2 Swansea City (LC)
07 Mar 17 > Reading 0-0 Newcastle United
26 Dec 16 > Reading 3-1 Norwich City
29 Oct 16 > Reading 2-0 Nottingham Forest
06 Aug 16 > Reading 1-0 Preston North End
15 Sep 15 > Reading 0-1 Derby County
Historically
It took Reading until 1986 before they managed a league game with Birmingham and of the first nine league games played between the sides, seven ended in draws. To me it just seems that the fixture has subsequently struggled with an air of dour tedium ever since.
That said Reading do seem to do slightly better against the Blues in their own back yard as opposed to playing in Reading as the Royals have recorded 6 wins which is only 1 less than Birmingham themselves..
Usually there are goals in this game and a clean sheet for either side is a bit unlikely so who would bet against a 0-0?
How to follow the game
- Get a ticket and travel to St Andrew's
- 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, BBC iPlayer Radio (other radio apps are available ))