The first midweek league game is upon us, as we face managerless Huddersfield, who have lost their opening two league games, shipping seven goals and scoring one. Our form has been good coming into this one though, as we narrowly missed out on three points against Wigan and scraped a win at Ipswich on Saturday.
Vital Quotes:
Reading manager Nigel Adkins – ‘We’ll look at the group and their availability, we were in on Sunday, we had one or two knocks and maybe one or two more youngsters might be making their debuts! Saturday was a physical game, for example Pav worked relentlessly up front despite getting a dead leg. At the moment there’s eight unavailable senior players to add to the group, when we get them we’ll be healthy. None of them will be available for Huddersfield but we’re looking forward to them coming back and we’re excited for Tuesday’s game.’
Huddersfield caretaker boss Mark Lillis – “I know Nigel Adkins really well – he was physio when I was at Scunthorpe. I encouraged him to get into coaching and we`re good friends as we lived in the same village for a number of years. I know he likes to play good football, similar to myself. His teams work hard and put a shift in. It will be good to see him, but once the whistle goes we`re not mates anymore – we`re opposition. Reading will be a tough one, but every Championship game is. It might be a different type of game than Saturday – I`m looking forward to it. We`re looking to come out with a decent result. We have a group of players here that we believe in.”
Reading Team News:
Nigel Adkins will not be able to welcome back any of his injured players for this one, meaning forward Jamie Mackie and Hal Robson-Kanu are still a week away from full training, while Stephen Kelly is still out. Midfielders Jem Karacan, Danny Williams and Danny Guthrie are all still out, while Anton Ferdinand is still short of fitness. Garath McCleary is still a few months away from returning to action.
Player to watch: Michael Hector
The 22-year old put in a man of the match performance against Ipswich on Saturday, dealing with David McGoldirck very well, but Nakhi Wells will provide a new challenge for him. The former Bradford striker has ability in the air and on the floor, so it will be interesting to see how he deals with him.
Huddersfield Team News:
Huddersfield skipper Lee Peltier will have a late fitness test ahead of this game, but striker James Vaughan is still out injured, as well as Anthony Gerrard. Forwards Joe Lolley and Martin Paterson are still sidelined, as it midfielder Oscar Gobern. Fellow midfielder Oliver Norwood is set to complete a move with us tomorrow, so will not be included in the squad.
Player to watch: Nakhi Wells
As mentioned, the Terriers forward is one that is very highly rated in this division, after making the step up very well from League One last year, where he also made Morrison look a complete fool throughout our game at the Mad Stad. Wells scored a hat trick in the league cup last week, so will want to open his account for the league in this one.
Match Facts & Stats
Reading – 4-2-3-1: Federici; Gunter, Pearce, Hector, Cummings; Obita, Akpan; Blackman, Cox, Taylor; Pogrebnyak.
Huddersfield – 4-5-1: – Smithies; Smith, Wallace, Lynch, Dixon; Hammill, Hogg, Coady, Butterfield, Ward; Wells.
Ref Watch:
The man in the middle for this one will be Stuart Attwell, who makes his first visit to the Madejski Stadium. The last time he refereed the Royals was a 3-2 win at Forest last season, where he very harshly sent off Chris Gunter for a second yellow card. Attwell will be most famously remember though for the ‘ghost goal’ he gave us at Watford back in 2008.
Match Prediction:
When a team is without a manager, there is a sense of expectation to beat them, but it doesn’t work out as easy as that. They have lost their opening two league games and will be itching to prove a point to their caretaker boss and the new one that comes in. I can see it being a high scoring draw.
Vital Reading prediction: Reading 2 – 2 Huddersfield
Next Fixtures:
Reading – Nottingham Forest (A) – Sat 23rd August – SkyBet Championship
Huddersfield – Charlton (H) – Sat 23rd August – SkyBet Championship
