When : Saturday 18th July 2020, 3pm
Where : Ewood Park, Blackburn, Lancashire, BB2 4JF
Capacity : 31,367
Reading take their mediocre season to Lancashire next to try and sustain a mid table preciseness.
Blackburn have had a season much like Reading (indeed a Reading win will see the club move just 1 point behind the Rovers) though Blackburn’s wins have come slightly more regularly throughout the season and have therefore never troubled the lower reaches of the table. The current form for the men from Ewood is 2 wins and 4 draws from the last 11 games but in that time they have played WBA, Leeds and Brentford plus had the usual end of season "club with nothing to play for" defeats at Wigan and Barnsley. In addition Blackburn haven't kept a clean sheet in any of their last 9 games.
Blackburn's season has been marred by the loss of Bradley Dack to a serious injury earlier in the year and again he will miss this game. However Adam Armstrong seems to be posing considerable threat having struck 14 goals and there are several other players on 4s and 3s goal wise (eg. Danny Graham, Lewis Holtby, Sam Gallagher) so potency is spread around the team reasonably well.
In addition to Bradley Dack, Tony Mowbray will also be unable to call on Derrick Williams, Amari'i Bell and Corry Evans while Reading will miss Andy Yiadom (only be risked for a cup final apparently) and Joao really should be rested rather than risk more injury to keep him out of the August close season and maintaining fitness. Pele, Adam and Ejaria presumably also remain doubtful.
Referee
Tim Robinson returns for this one and Reading have another chance to arrest the run of league defeats that seems to be developing under his auspices. Up to 5 successive league defeats now though not one team has kept a clean sheet in that run.
Previously
07 Dec 19 > Reading 2-3 Birmingham City
06 Apr 19 > Hull City 3-1 Reading
01 Jan 19 > Reading 1-4 Swansea City
19 Sep 18 > Reading 1-2 Norwich City
16 Jan 18 > Reading 3-0 Stevenage (FA Cup 3)
30 Sep 17 > Reading 1-2 Norwich City
29 Apr 17 > Reading 1-0 Wigan Athletic
01 Oct 16 > Reading 1-1 Derby County
02 Feb 16 > Ipswich Town 2-1 Reading
21 Sep 13 > Derby County 1-3 Reading
Historically
As with most trips up north Reading do not have a very impressive record. At Ewood Park there is just the one win to show from the ten previous league visits.
The full league record there is played 10 won 1, drawn 5, lost 4, for 15, against 22
How to follow the game
- 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 depending where you are in the area)