Spread the love

Reading made an amazing start to the season, and although their form has fallen away a bit, they are in the thick of this season’s promotion race.

The Royals won seven and drew one of their first eight matches to go seven points clear at the top of the table.

But they then lost four and drew one of their next five games to drop to sixth. They have recovered slightly since then with three wins, one draw and two defeats, one of which came in their last game against Norwich on Wednesday. It leaves them one place and one point above Brentford coming into Saturday’s game.

One notable thing about their results this season has been a lack of draws. While the Bees have the second highest number of draws in the Championship with eight, the Royals have the second lowest number with three. All of those have come in away games – at Middlesbrough (0-0) and Millwall and Sheffield Wednesday (both 1-1).

They have also won four times on their travels – at Derby (2-0), Cardiff (2-1), Blackburn (4-2) and QPR last Saturday (1-0).

This is Reading’s eighth consecutive season in the Championship and 12th in the last 13, and they have finished in the bottom half in five of those more recent campaigns.

The only year they were not at this level was 2012/13, when they finished 19th in the Premier League and were relegated.

They enjoyed two seasons in the top flight from 2006 to 2008 with a side full of ex-Brentford players managed by former Bees boss Steve Coppell – coming eighth and then 18th.

WHO’S IN CHARGE

Veljko Paunovic was appointed as Reading manager on the eve of the season, replacing Mark Bowen at the helm.

Embed from Getty Images

His previous job was a four-year spell in charge of US Major League Soccer Side Chicago Fire and before that he was in charge of the Serbia international side at under-20 level and below.

As a player, he spent most of his career in Spain, and also played in Germany, Russia and the USA.

WE’VE MET BEFORE

Reading are one of five teams we have played in each of our Championship seasons so far – the others are Birmingham, Derby, Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Wednesday.

We have a good record against the Royals – winning seven and drawing two of our 12 meetings.

Brentford did the double over Reading in our first Championship season of 2014/15 for the first time since the 1990/91 campaign.

The Bees moved up to 10th in the table with a 3-1 win in TW8 with first half goals from Jota and Alex Pritchard putting us in control.

Although ex-Bees loan player Simon Cox pulled one back soon after half-time, Jonathan Douglas clinched our second home win in successive games and gained some measure of revenge for our agonising draw in 2002 on their previous visit.

Our visit to the Madejski Stadium was our penultimate game of the season and an early goal from Alan Judge followed by the rare sight of a defender scoring from a corner – James Tarkowski the man on target – took our play-off push to the final game against Wigan a week later.

In the 2015/16 August meeting at Griffin Park, Nick Blackman scored twice to give the Royals a 3-1 victory – their first Championship win of the season.

Blackman doubled Reading’s lead just past the half hour mark after Orlando Sa had put them ahead.

Lasse Vibe scored his first Bees goal to give us hope midway through the second half, but Blackman confirmed the win with a penalty nine minutes into second half stoppage-time.

Brentford gave us a late festive gift by avenging that defeat with two goal of the season contenders as we won 2-1 in the return at the Madejski Stadium at the end of December.

Ryan Woods superbly hammered us ahead from distance early on – his first Bees goal – and although Garath McCleary equalised early in the second half, Sergi Canos collected a long Woods pass, cut in and finished brilliantly to win it. I want to know how he scored that goal….

Reading’s Michael Hector was sent off late on after collecting a second yellow card.

The home game, on the final Tuesday in September, was one of many superb Bees performances under the Griffin Park floodlights during 2016/17 as we romped to a 4-1 win.

Josh Clarke gave us the lead in the 41st minute with his first Bees goal and Lasse Vibe doubled the lead before the break.

Maxime Colin became the second player to score his first goal for the club to make it 3-0 before Yann Kermorgant pulled one back from the penalty spot.

Scott Hogan hit his seventh of the season late on to complete the win and take us up to fourth in the table.


The return on Valentine’s Day is not a match that Brentford fans will love to remember as we failed to come up smelling of roses – surrendering a 2-1 lead to lose 3-2.

Ex-Bee John Swift gave Reading a first half lead, but two goals in quick succession midway through the second from Jota and Lasse Vibe looked like making it a date to remember for the Bees.

However, Danny Williams levelled in the 77th minute and Roy Beerens accepted a gift to slot in the winner.
In 2017/18, Josh Clarke scored at home to Reading for the second successive season, but his first Championship goal in 11 months was not enough to end our winless run in a 1-1 draw.

Right-back Clarke gave us a 16th-minute lead when he exchanged passes with Neal Maupay and fired home.

However, Liam Kelly equalised from the penalty spot in the 70th minute to leave us in the relegation zone – four points and four places behind the Royals.

Things were different in January as Lasse Vibe scored his 36th, and last, Championship goal for us to secure all three points at the Madejski.

Vibe struck in the 74th minute with his seventh goal in eight games to make it five wins out of six in the league and move us up to ninth in the table – only three points off the play-off zone.

Reading’s best chance came through Griffin Park goalscorer Kelly, whose free-kick crashed back off the bar.

The following season, Yoann Barbet headed a dramatic injury-time equaliser at Griffin Park as Reading’s visit ended in a 2-2 draw in late September.

Neal Maupay gave us an early lead from close range with his ninth goal of the season but two mistakes from Dan Bentley in the middle of each half allowed the Royals to take a 2-1 lead.

First he spilled a shot from ex-Bee John Swift and Jon Dadi Bodvarsson was there to tuck the ball home and then he fumbled a Swift free-kick over the line.

Said Benrahma was sent off in the 86th minute after picking up his second yellow card, but the drama wasn’t over as Barbet rose highest to head home at the far post after Chris Mepham flicked on a Lewis Macleod corner.

Two goals by Yakou Meite in the first 15 minutes of the return match were enough to earn Reading a crucial victory as Brentford slipped to a 2-1 defeat. despite a reply from Neal Maupay just before half-time.

We did the double over Reading last season. A goal by Ollie Watkins, his 11th of the season, settled the match at Griffin Park in November. Our 1-0 win took us up to eighth in the table and ended Reading’s four-match unbeaten run as they dropped to 18th in the table.

The return was the third game after the restart in June and Brentford cruised to a comfortable 3-0 win at the Madejski.

Bryan Mbeumo headed the Bees in front midway through the first half and Josh Dasilva doubled the lead at the second attempt in the 64th minute. Substitute Joel Valencia made sure with a superb third – his first goal for the Bees – in the final minute to wrap up our fourth straight win.

We stayed third in the table, two points behind second-placed West Brom, while Reading dropped to 16th.

HOW TO FOLLOW THE GAME

The match is being played behind closed doors at the Brentford Community Stadium at 3.00pm on Saturday. Season ticket holders who have frozen their tickets will have free access to watch the match on iFollow, and others can buy a match pass for ÂŁ10.

Live audio commentary is available on iFollow with Mark Burridge, Karleigh Osborne and Natalie Sawyer with a match pass available to buy for ÂŁ2.50, while there is also live commentary on BBC London 94.9 (not available online) with Andy Rowley commentating and Billy Reeves reporting.

IAN WESTBROOK

@ianwestbrook