Off To St Andrews

Stoke City will be watching with interest tonight as Royals and Birmingham slog it out once again at St Andrews for the right to play in round five. The match is live on Sky and that?s probably why there have only been around 13,000 tickets sold, even at a reduced price.

Vital Quotes:

Matthew Upson:

‘Reading provided the breakthrough for me. I had a good loan spell there and it led onto Birmingham watching me and coming in for me in the January.

‘I found my game again there, got really fit and sharp and I enjoyed my time there. They had a good manager in Alan Pardew who helped me while I was there.

‘It wasn’t all plain sailing. I turned up there and for my first two games I was all over the place. I was poor. The manager left me out of the third game which was a bit of a blow to the confidence.

‘But it was also a reality check of how unfit I was and how I needed to approach the game and it did me the power of good. I turned things around and really finished strongly at Reading.’

Steve Coppell

‘To play good football and battle in equal measure to get a result against top Premiership opposition – who played probably their strongest line-up available – showed these players are capable.

‘My starting XI in the cup games could quite conceivably be my team in a league game. You have to look at the bigger picture, I have to know in my mind if these players can come in and gel with the rest of the team.
‘They have shown they can and our results and performances in the two games against West Brom, and in the first game with Birmingham, in no way suggest that we are not taking this competition seriously.

‘There are 20,000-plus paying customers who turn up to watch us, how can I possibly say that games are not important?’

Birmingham Team News:

Injuries and suspensions have seriously weakened Steve Bruce?s side before tonights game.

Players banned are Emile Heskey and Damien Johnson. Heskey starts his ban after the sending off in the game against Arsenal at the weekend, Johnson?s ban reaches the second of three matches. His ban came for being sent off against Liverpool.

Players who will miss the game are Kenny Cunningham, Martin Taylor, Stan Lazaridis, David Dunn and Neil Kilkenny, while Steve Bruce waits on late fitness tests to Matthew Upson, Muzzy Izzet and Oliver Tebily.

New signings Martin Latka and Dudley ‘DJ’ Campbell are both ineligible

Player to watch: Matthew Upson

Solid at the back, we all know what he can do.

Reading Team News:

Its a young squad that Steve Coppell is taking to Birmingham, preferring to rest key players for the final assault on getting into the premiership.

There is likely to be eight changes to the side that faced Crewe at the weekend, going back to more or less the same side that faced Birmingham at the Mad Stad for the original game.

One change could be Leroy Lita being replaced by Dave Kitson up front.

Player to watch: Dave Kitson

He?ll give the Birmingham back four something to think about.

Match Facts & Stats

The last time the two clubs met Steve Coppell put out a weakened team and almost beat the second West Midlands side on the bounce until David Dunn had his say late in the game.

Ref Watch:

Peter Walton of Northamptonshire

Walton takes charge of his first Reading game tonight so far this season. He was the ref when Blues beat Wigan 2-0 in January

So far Walton has taken charge of 27 games, shown 84 yellow cards and four red

Match Prediction:

May go to penalties

Next Fixtures:

League Championship Reading vs Southampton 10-02-2006
League Championship Sheff Utd vs Reading 14-02-2006