When : Wednesday 14th September 2022, 8pm
Where : Madejski Stadium, Reading, RG2 0FL
Capacity : 24,161
Home again already, barely noticed what happened at Watford but at least Reading didn't lose so can go into this one against Sunderland (and just what sort of planks line up Reading v Sunderland as a MIDWEEK fixture) with a few more days to get people off the treatment table.
Sunderland won promotion via the playoffs last season to finally end their longest sojourn (4 years) in the third division of English football. Since returning they're doing quite well and are currently in 8th place not that, given their resource, anyone has them down to struggle and make a quick return whence they came. General expectation seems to be consistent in that they'll consolidate nice and comfortably somewhere around mid table.
Despite promotion there was a large amount of change in the Sunderland squad over the summer with Aiden McGeady heading off to Hibernian, Jack McIntyre to Larne, Will Grigg to MK Dons, William Harris to Gateshead, Arbenit Xhemajli went to Vaduz and Cieran Dunne departed for Cove Rangers.
In return 6 players arrived on permanent deals; Dan Ballard (centre back from Arsenal), winger Leon Dajaku converted his previous loan deal from Union Berlin, West Ham central defender Aji Aleese, spare keeper Alex Bass from Portsmouth, young defender Callum Wilson from Shrewsbury and probably the biggest coup in landing midfielder Jack Clarke from Spurs. In addition to these signings the striker Ellis Simms arrived on loan from Everton together with loans for winger Amad Diallo from Manchester United and midfielder Edouard Michut from Paris St Germain.
The Black Cats have been proving rather useful away from home with 2 of their 3 wins being collected on the road at Stoke City and the currently high flying Bristol City so this game is probably going to be the most difficult test for Reading's home form so far. The defeats for Sunderland in the league so far have been at Middlesbrough (last time out), at Sheffield United and at home to Norwich so this bunch are not going to be easy pickings and only the very best of attitudes from Reading will stand a chance of taking the day.
Yet despite a decent start and good return from the opposition played so far the board at Sunderland allowed manager Alex Neil to leave for Stoke and replaced him with Tony Mowbray who has been in situ for barely 2 weeks so this is going to throw things up in the air and not just for Sunderland as their dynamic of established (and successful) way of doing things changes but also for Reading as their intended game plan will need to be carefully revisited.
The big threat is Scottish international Ross Stewart who pretty much single handedly wrecked defences in the third division last season by netting 24 goals from 46 starts and he's already showing signs he's going to do it all over again given the 5 goal return from 7 starts already recorded. And he might not be the only one brewing as the aforementioned loanee striker Ellis Simms has bagged 3 goals from 7 appearances. In addition I presume we already know all about Jack Clarke from his Leeds days in this division and he has hit the back of the net twice from his 8 appearances in the league so far.
Within a week or so of having a day where it looked like the club might have an injury list with just 4 names, the club are back up to 8 wounded. Currently receiving treatment are 1- Scott Dann, 2 - Liam Moore, 3 - Shane Long, 4- Ovie Ejaria, 5- Yakou Meite, 6 - Jokull Andresson, 7 - Mamadou Loum and 8 - Naby Sarr. Hopefully, as suggested above, the postponement of the Watford game will enable a little more time for recovery and no-one else will go down with something in training
I'm not expecting anyone in particular to be back but Shane Long and maybe Yakou Meite and Ovie Ejaria probably have the best chances.Meanwhile Sunderland have a bit of a central defender issue developing as Dan Ballard has already broken his foot and is out until after the World Cup. In addition Dennis Cirkin was injured in their last game at Middlesbrough leaving just Danny Batth, Bailey Wright and the inexperienced youngster Aji Aleese to take the the central defensive slots that are currently being favoured by Tony Mowbray in his early days at the club. In addition to Ballard and Cirkin, Edouard Michut is sidelined until after the international break along with Niall Huggins. However the threat of Ross Stewart is off the menu as he is likely to be out until November with a thigh problem picked up in the pre-match warm up for the Middlesbrough game.
Lastly, there will most likely be a minute's silence for the Queen (and another at Wigan on 17th Sep) plus the game is live on Sky. Reading have won just 8 of the last 31 of their games played live on the telly which isn’t all that good really so maximum effort and organisation will be required. The alternative view though is the fact that Reading are actually on a 100% run of 1 win from 1 live telly game.
Referee
Matthew “1 Reading win from 8 games” Donohue
Previously
30 Apr 22 > Reading 0-1 West Bromwich Albion
16 Feb 22 > Peterborough United 0-0 Reading
07 Aug 21 > Stoke City 3-2 Reading
26 Dec 20 > Reading 2-1 Luton Town
12 Feb 20 > Reading 1-2 West Bromwich Albion
11 Dec 19 > Barnsley 1-1 Reading
21 Sep 19 > Reading 1-2 Blackburn Rovers
10 Aug 19 > Hull City 1-0 Reading
Historically
This is only the 10th league season shared with Sunderland with the first only happening in 1986/87. Of the previous 9 league games in Reading the home side have the upper hand by 5 wins to 2 and by 13 goals to 9. However other than the 4-0 win back in 1997, Reading wins are always 1 goal scrape throughs while if Sunderland win, so far, it is always by 2-0.
How to follow the game
- Get a ticket and travel
- Sky
- Listen to Radio 5 Live and/or a myriad of other radio stations for score flashes
- Ring/text a mate for updates
- Use a RoyalTV subscription
- BBC Radio Berkshire (FM : 104.4, 104.1 or 95.4 depending where you are in the area)
