Ince Aims For Reading Xmas Present With The Play Off Spots In Reach

15 December 2022
By Hob Nob Anyone?

Having been tipped for a potential relegation battle ahead of the 2022/23 Championship campaign, Reading manager Paul Ince has enjoyed a good first half of the season at the Madejski Stadium.

In the first half of the year before we had the month long-ish winter break enforced on domestic European leagues to enable the first ever World Cup out in Qatar to take place, Reading had picked up a very steady 29 points, leaving us unexpectedly comfortable in the middle of the table, and with December fixtures now having returned, we go into Christmas Day sat in 12th spot on 32 points, and had it not been for the unfortunate defeat to the hands of Birmingham City a few days back, our 23rd game of the campaign could well have seen us push into the much coveted Play Off spots had we taken another three points and many fans would have said 'what the' to that.

And whilst looking at the ‘real thing, there is of course also online gaming which is becoming more prominent on the internet as each day passes. These games range from mildly entertaining and not at all relevant to football to games that are almost a direct nod to the each league. Although there are games like FIFA and PES that fulfill these criteria, there’s a wide range of football-themed games waiting to be discovered.

One such example is football-themed slot games, although their entertainment value depends on the RTP. And what is RTP, you may ask? It’s the amount of money a certain player can expect to win from the slot machine.

This number can range anywhere from 80% to 105%, depending on how well the game is made. If the game’s RTP is too high or too low, it may not be configured properly.

Ince is obviously pretty confident ahead of the 2023 portion of the campaign kicking in, insisting that our form means the players have 'nothing to be frightened of' as we look to the second half of the year, and he naturally feels that we could well make a Play Off charge if we can keep this going.

If we can get back to the sort of run that we had at the start of the campaign with seven wins in the opening 12 matches, there is no reason to doubt that we could well be in for an interesting end to the season, but we have to avoid a repeat of the blip we saw in early October where we only picked up five points from an available 24.

Sitting two points shy of the top six is certainly not an unassailable challenge, there will be those fans who are noting that we only sit eight away from the drop zone. With transfer restrictions in place with the embargo, the club will have to be sensible when the January transfer window opens, but Ince remains pleased with our summer dealings.

Speaking to the Official Site following the recent defeat to Birmingham, the gaffer explained.

“We’re doing alright. This is a team that’s been put together quickly, so you don’t always know what you’re going to get. But by the same token, when I assess the 23 teams that we’ve played so far… we were poor against Rotherham at the start of the season, and Sheffield United are a very good outfit. But the other games, we’ve been in it. We should have won at Burnley, we were two up at Swansea, and we conceded in the last minute at QPR. So if I have an assessment of all the teams we’ve played, there’s nothing to be frightened of! We should feel confident about moving forward in the next 23 games. If we make mistakes like we did against Birmingham, that’s a different kettle of fish. So we’ve got to learn, and learn quickly.”

Once we get Christmas and Boxing Day out of the way, eyes will quickly turn to the fixture with Swansea City, and returning to winning ways in that one would make for a perfect festive fixture.

“I want to wish all of our fans a very merry Christmas. I’m sorry that we couldn’t get them the three points at Birmingham, but we’ll be trying again for them on December 27 against Swansea. And I hope they all have a lovely Christmas.”

We could well do just that.

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