Just over a year ago this was a premier League fixture.

 We lost that fixture 1-0 and coming off the back of six and five nil thrashings away at Liverpool and Arsenal, it seemed like we might be turning a corner. 

That wasn’t to be and we lost 4-0 against a reading side fighting to stay up on the final day.  It wasn’t to be for Reading but after a slow start, the Royals are working on a way back.

Coppell kept faith with most of the players from last season and they’ve repaid him with goals. Only Wolves have scored more in the division. 

 Leading Scorer Kevin Doyle has 11 for the season so far – and has signed a new contract at the Madejski that should keep him there until 2011. The player said; “The club and I didn't want any uncertainty in January. We wanted to clear things up now and then just try to get back into the Premiership.” This suggests that the various rumours linking the player with a move away from the Madejski are wide of the mark – or more cynically, clubs will have to up their price. 

At the time of writing, Reading have no reported injury problems.

Royal's statistics  

The Rams

 Paul Jewell thinks that Reading will be our biggest challenge yet. The Royals are unbeaten at home and have only dropped two points at the Madejski in seven games.

 Paul Jewell says; "I think Reading are the best team in the league, they have power, pace and desire, and we are going to have to be at our best. We are going to have to be better than we were against Forest on Sunday and Brighton the other night.” 

The problem for Jewell of course is that injuries may prevent him putting out his best team. Dean Leacock is very doubtful while Martin Albrechtsen is just doubtful. Lewin Nyatanga has done well at the back but the only other options available are Claude Davis, Miles Addison who took over when Leacock went off at Brighton, and possibly Jay McEveley. 

Jewell must be reluctant to put Addison into the back four as he has been a key player in the midfield forming an impressive partnership with Paul Green. Claude Davis does not however inspire much confidence and against a team like Reading whose forwards seem to be scoring for fun ... 

We struggle to keep a clean sheet and haven't managed one for seven games... Maybe scoring goals at the other end is the answer? Although we put four past Brighton, Reading should provide a sterner test but then in that game and the Forest game, one of our providers was not playing to his best. 

Kris Commons did very well against Norwich and was vying with Jordan Stewart and Nathan Ellington for man of the match. Against Forest he was mostly anonymous while reports from the south coast suggest he wasn't heavily involved.

 The occasional poor game can be forgiven, however Commons needs to look at the likes of Lee Morris who, while being an excellent footballer, never achieved anything in the game because of his inability to cope when the chips were down.  

Bywater, Stewart, Albrechtsen, Nyatanga, Connolly, Commons, Addison, Green, Barazite, Hulse, Ellington. 

What the bookies think

 The Royal's are heavily fancied at 8/13 for this game. The Rams are at 4/1 which is surprisingly high given we've done well against the top teams this season. The draw is at 23/10.

An indication of the confidence the Bookies have in Reading is that Kevin Doyle is at 4/1 to be first scorer while Rob Hulse is at 8/1. 

Information for travelling fans 

Driving: its 130 miles to the Madejski stadium. Best route is M1 south to junction 15a where you pick up the A43 link road to the M40. Take the M40 to Junction 9 and take the A34 to Oxford where you take the A423 and A4074 to Reading.  Turn Right into Bridge St and left into Caversham Rd and onto the A33 to a roundabout. Take the 3rd exit, Northern Way and the stadium is on the left on Hoops Way. For fans travelling on the M4 Footballgroundguides.com warns that getting off the M4 at J11 can be a pain and 40 minute tailbacks often occur on match days.  

Parking: There is a car park at the ground and at the nearby speedway/greyhound track, both of which cost £7. Don’t expect to get out and homeward bound in less than an hour after the final whistle however. Don’t be tempted to park on the nearby industrial complex unless you can find a unit that is allowing (and charging for) it. You may end up clamped. 

Drinking: Like Pride Park, there aren’t many pubs near the ground. There’s a Harvester on the road into Reading.  Footballgroundguides.com reports that a Holiday Inn close by has a small attached bar called Callaghans however it is very expensive.

 A better option would be to head into Reading Town centre and drink there. Apparently the pubs do have a downer on fans wearing colours except at the Three Guineas pub on the Station Approach.

 Mick’s Prediction 

The last few times I've seen us play Reading we've lost. We lost badly on the final day of the season but nobody cared.

Our fans cruelly taunted the Reading faithful who arrived at Pride Park with hopes of staying up. I'd expect Reading to be up for this game just to repay that. However I'm not going so it's possible we may come away from the Madejski with something? Hope so. 

Photo: Action Images

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