When : Monday 2 January 2023, 3pm
Where : The Hawthorns, Halfords Lane, West Bromwich, West Midlands, B71 4LF
Capacity 26,688
About the only good thing of this return fixture is the fact that Reading won’t have any more league games to play against WBA this season and, together with Norwich and Swansea, the Biscuitmen will therefore have completed their league fixtures against 3 of the most awkward, and usually non-rewarding sides, that they have to face in this division, as soon as it’s possible for a club to do so.
Thankfully Reading have picked up their form a little with 10 points from the last 15 now but this one is probably going to be a game too far, but the Biscuitmen have shown some decent spirit and grit I the last two games and if the Throstles do have a bit of a misfire then there might well be an opportunity to sneak something.
WBA are an awful lot better with Carlos Corberan running things on the pitch. Things may not look particularly brilliant of the field (have taken a £20m loan over 4 years from their Chinese owners to try to avoid a fire sale of players) but on it the ejection of Bruce earlier in the season has turned the Baggies from a team that was difficult to beat but couldn’t win to a team that’s difficult to beat and does win.
Form since the ex-Huddersfield boss arrived is played 9, won 7 and lost 2 which is 21 points gained out of the last 27 available so this is going to be as hard as it gets and will need some sort of miracle for Reading to emerge with anything. In addition WBA haven’t conceded a goal at home in the last 4 games, all of which they’ve won, and they’ve only actually conceded 2 goals in the last 8 games of which 7 have been won.
The WBA squad is packed full of quality, with midfield probably being the best in the division. Firstly there’s the known John Swift factor, then there is the perennial Reading thorn of Jed Wallace followed by Turkish international Okay Yokoslu, who is starting to show some form, and if that isn’t enough Jayson Molumby and former Reading target Tom Rogic are there to help make life very difficult. Karlan Grant, Brandon Thomas-Asante and Darrell Dike are all pretty useful up front too so quite how Reading can counter all that is going to be quite a question.
Kyle Bartley is the only WBA injury problem while hopefully Reading won’t have picked up any more issues on Friday so will “just” be without Tyrese Fornah, Sam Hutchinson, Liam Moore and Ovie Ejaria.
Referee
Tom “first ever Championship level game, so just what you need” Nield
Historically
This will be the 19th visit to The Hawthorns for a league game and it’s a right tale of woe with a catalogue of defeat after defeat stretching all the way back to the 1920s.
Reading have managed to produce a fairly consistent run of defeats (14) from their 18 previous league visits with the only sojourn being a couple of wins back in the mid 1980s of all times. So it’s now 12 league visits and 34 years since Reading last lowered the West Brom colours in a league trip to the Hawthorns, 1-0 in February 1988. Consequently the goal difference is a bit cr@p with 11 goals scored and 36 conceded.
Perhaps the management should somehow persuade the players it’s a cup game as Reading have only lost 1 of the 10 games played.
How to follow the game
- Get a ticket and travel
- 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)
