When : Tuesday 27th August, 7.45pm
Where : Home Park, Plymouth, PL2 3DQ
Capacity 12,550
Away Stand : One side of the Barn Park End
What might I see in the area : A bridge going to Cornwall, pasties, cream teas - it would have been much better to play these cup games at 3pm on the preceding bank holiday
And hot on the heels of a long away league trip up north comes a long away league cup trek out south west to the most southerly football league ground.
Plymouth are playing two divisions below Reading in Division 4 and aren't doing too badly at all. They've already managed a win away at early leaders Crewe so look to be fairly useful and, of course, this is a cup game where they will see an opportunity to get a big club and some much needed cash in the next round. Therefore they are going to be primed and up for it while Reading, as with most other higher level sides in this round, are likely to play weakened sides and therefore at high risk of being dumped out of the competition.
I would expect Reading to be likely to field a different line up as that which turned out v Wycombe with, I think, both Obita and Blackett getting places on the bench if not playing some part. For the record the line up v Wycombe was : Rafael, Rinomhota, Moore, Morrison, McIntyre, Richards, Adam, Pele, Ejaria, Boye, Puscas Subs : Walker, Swift, Miazga, Loader, Baldock, Barrett, Olise but I reckon that starting line up will be little less experienced with Rafael, at least one of the CBs, Ejaria and Puscas rested (or at least only on the bench) so will be fun trying to guess this one.
The 3rd round draw is presumably to be held straight after the games on Tuesday and this game will go straight to penalties if the scores are level at 90 minutes so there shouldn't be too much hanging about waiting for a result.
Referee
A debut referee for this one I believe. Somerset's Kevin Johnson will hove into view to whistle up what we all hope will be a right royal win.
Historically
Reading have never played a league cup game at Home Park but did beat Plymouth at the Mad Stad in 2016 in the only league cup tie played between the two teams to date.
Home Park is a bit of (pil)grim place for Reading down the years with just 6 wins from 29 league visits the last of which was Brian's first game and saw Reading crash 4-1 to the relegation bound "Devoneers".
And just to complete the sorry record, Reading have lost both FA Cup games played at Home Park; 1-0 in 1999 and 2-0 in the very last FA Cup game played as a "non league" club back in January 1920.
How to follow the game
- Get a ticket and travel all the way
- 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)