When : Friday December 26 2025, 3pm
Where : Home Park, Outland Road, Plymouth, Devon, PL2 3DQ
Capacity : 17,000
It's Boxing Day fixture time so it must be a nice local derby and indeed the FL have played their usual idiot part by sending Reading for a long day trip to Plymouth!
Reading will be in trouble for this game as, going by Richardson logic, none of the players have played at Home Park before
If that is going to be the case it'll be embarrassing given Plymouth have dodged their "fancied for promotion" tag in favour of a "let's all do a Luton" adventure and go for a second successive relegation. It should be noted though that their dreadful run still puts them only behind Reading on GD so it seems there's **** all to choose between these two dysfunctional outfits.
Tom Cleverly was appointed in the summer to be the new manager of Plymouth, his one claim of fame as a manager being that he survived as a Watford boss for a whole 12 months, things haven't been going so well since though and he's recently received the famous "backing of the board" award so his time could be rapidly coming to the end and especially so if AFC Charity Ding can hammer a nail into his coffin.
Form has dragged Plymouth to 8 wins and 12 defeats in their 21 games so far and things have been very squeaky for the most part with a residential spot booked in the bottom 4 being their reward for much of what has been happening do far.
In their last 10 games Plymouth have either won or lost (so expect another damn draw here then!). Currently the Pilgrims are on a run of 3 wins from 3 with only 1 goal conceded but then they had lost 6 and won just once in the 7 league games before starting this current mini run, so this is going to be the usual standard very dodgy away situation for Reading.
The threat is simply their strikers; Lorent Tolaj who has banged in 10 so far and is a big handful at this level and Owen Oseni who is proving a rather useful strike partner. In addition Reading fans probably don't want to be reminded about Jamie Paterson being a pain in the arse whenever they meet up, additionally former Cardiff player Joe Ralls will be renewing acquaintances.
Elliott and Lane are still believed injured and Jacob has now returned to Hull after injury cut his loan short. No real clue about others until the team sheet appears at 2pm.
Referee
James “son of Paul” Durkin
Previously
11 Oct 25 > Exeter City 1-1 Reading
05 Nov 24 > Cheltenham 1-0 Reading (Trophy)
Historically
This is season 30 for the two teams and it's usually a fairly unrewarding time in this part of Devon for fans of Reading. The 29 previous visits have returned 15 Plymouth wins but only 6 for Reading, the last league trip there was Brian McDermott's first game in charge of the club but fortunes for Reading on the pitch only picked up after getting tanked 4-1 in the obligatory shambles of a performance.
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 RoyalsTV subscription
- BBC Radio Berkshire (FM : 104.4, 104.1 or 95.4 depending where you are in the area)
