When : Saturday 20 January 2024
Where : DW Stadium, Loire Drive, Robin Park, Wigan, WN5 0UH
Capacity : 25,138
Reading's wait for the inevitable starts at Wigan. God knows what will remain of the first team squad with a mixture of some players having gone and others unsurprisingly rested for "reasons".
Wigan aren't that good either but, despite similar point deduction problems for issues similar to Reading in the summer, their owner cared enough to sell the club so their problems would now seem to be very much behind them.
The latics' form is dreadful though with only 1 win in the last 7 league games but that was at home to other strugglers Carlisle so they wouldn't appear to be to phased by the old "sinking to standards of the opponent" problem that Reading so often do in similar situations.
In their last 7 games Wigan have scored 6 goals and kept just 2 clean sheets so they're probably about as out of form as you can get but even that may be too much for Reading given the current nature of things.
Forwards Stephen Humphrys and Charlie Wyke are where the main latic' threat lies having 14 goals between them which puts both way ahead in the Wigan scoring charts.
No idea what team to expect from Reading as it depends very much on who has been sold this week or who is about to be sold next week. However given players have been sold Reading might now be able to give Charlie Savage his pay rise but I won't hold my breath to see that one.
Selles is very much a man with the safest job in the country now as I don't think anyone would sack him now with all the utter **** going on around him and the shameful actions of the club in leaving him to front the endless media questions about what the hell is going on behind the scenes.
Pointage of any description from any of Reading's remaining games could well start to be seen as unexpected bonuses now as what remains of Dai's mess comes crashing down around everyone while he seems to be untouchable and uncaring.
Referee
Tom Reeves
Previously
23 Sep 23 > Blackpool 4-1 Reading
Historically
This is the 52nd league game against Wigan and so the 26th trek to make use of their hospitality.
As you'd expect for most northern outposts the place is not a particularly happy one for Reading who have always found victories difficult to come by up there stretching all the way back to Wigan's inaugural FL season in 1978 when Reading crashed 3-0.
In the 25 previous games played, 11 have been lost and 5 won. It took until the 13th visit to record a win (there were none whatsoever managed at Wigan's old home of Springfield Park) so at least the wins are in living memory. Recent form there is actually very good with 2 wins and a draw to show for the last 3 visits but this game is going to be hardest of the lot to get any return on.
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)
