When : Saturday 24th November 2018
Where : DW Stadium, Loire Drive, Robin Park, Wigan, WN5 0UH
Capacity : 25,138
Away Stand : North Stand
What might I see in the area : Rugby League
Another tedious international break envelops us all. No proper football for those supporters of clubs in the top two divisions, still it means Reading won't lose and the time can be spent watching entertaining football at the local sides like Bracknell, Maidenhead, Slough, Hartley Wintney, Hungerford, Marlow, Thatcham and Woking etc.
And then it's back to normal. Back to Reading trying to avoid their well practiced ineptitude and produce something that might earn some points somewhere. This time it's Wigan, another long trek to some outpost you'd never normally go anywhere near unless you had relatives there.
Reading will be hoping to appear and manifest a performance akin to the second half against Ipswich and not hove into view displaying the characteristics from the first half of that s(h)ame game. What Clement will get though will remain completely unknown until the game itself but it is getting to be alarming that the club can produce the proverbial game of two halves rather too regularly.
Wigan started their return to what is Division 2 brightly with 5 wins out of 9. Then the world came down and the next 8 games have seen but a solitary success (at home to the Baggies). It's been 4 games now since that solitary win but given that 3 of those games have been against Leeds, Sheffield United and Middlesbrough perhaps it's not quite as bad as it seems. It will be of course if Reading turn them over.
Reading have their usual injury list with the minimum 3/4 first teamers out just like they have had every week since the summer of 2017 whether that gets added to remains to be seen with players coming back from international duty later in the week though you can always count on Reading's training regime to add spice in that department. Meanwhile up at the DW Everton loanee Antonee Robinson will be missing for Wigan.
Referee
To be confirmed
Historically
This is the 43rd league game against Wigan and so the 22nd trek to make use of their hospitality.
As you'd expect for most northern outposts the place is not a particularly happy one for Reading who have always found victories difficult to come by up there stretching all the way back to Wigan's inaugural FL season in 1978 when they crashed 3-0.
In the 21 games played, 11 have been lost and just 3 won. It took until the 13th visit to record a win (there were none whatsoever managed at Wigan's old home of Springfield Park) so at least the wins are in living memory. When Reading do win there though they win by at least 2 and always keep a clean sheet.
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 an iFollow subscription
- BBC Radio Berkshire (FM : 104.4, 104.1 or 95.4 depending where you are in the area)