Friday 16 September 2022

Any Previous? - Latics v Reading

The first meeting came on the 26th August 1978 at Elm Park, in what was our 3rd league game in our first season in the league, we were still finding our feet in the professional game, a 2:0 defeat appeared to prove that.


 

By the time the reverse fixture came around at Springfield Park 3 months later, on the 18th November we’d apparently found them, 2 Peter Houghton goals and a Noel Ward header giving the Latics a resounding 3:0 win in front of 5,858 fans. 

 

Classic Encounters

The Latics have been involved in some memorable games down the years against Reading, the play-off meeting in 2001 and that dramatic night down in Reading, two late goals (86 & 90 mins) giving the Royals the win after Kevin Nicholls had put the Latcis in front after 26 minutes. 

Who could forget the 3:1 win on the 8th May 2005, McCulloch, Roberts and Ellington grabbing the goals that took us to the Premiership, as it was known back then.

Jordi Gomez with his perfect hat-trick, left foot, right foot, header to give us a 3:2 win on the 24th November 2012 is another that will live long in the memory banks, but I am going for the 3:0 Latics win that came on the 18th April 2014, just six days after the Wembley FA Cup semi-final heartbreak, going out on penalties against Arsenal.

A game where we rolled our sleeves up and didn’t feel sorry for ourselves as we came up against a fellow top six side, and an emphatic display sealed our play-off spot.

Latics – Al Habsi; Perch, Barnett, Boyce, Beausejour; Espinoza (Collison 84), McArthur, Gomez; Maloney (Fortune 72), McManaman; Waghorn (Powell 72)

Unused Subs – Carson, Kiernan, McClean, Maynard

Goals - Gomez 30, Waghorn 42 & McManaman 51 ninutes

Att – 14,609

Highlights Latics 3:0 Reading

 

Reading Current Form

The Royals currently sit 4th in the Championship table with 15 points from 9 games, 5 wins and 4 defeats, they have scored 9 goals and conceded 14.

 

Reading On The Road

Reading’s four Championship away games so far this season have brought three points, these coming from a 0:1 win against Millwall at the New Den, they have lost the other three at Blackpool (1:0), Rotherham (4:0) and Sheffield United (4:0).

 

Player To Watch – Lucas Joao

Lucas Joao
 

The 29 year old striker has spent the past 9 seasons playing in the Championship for Sheffield Wednesday, Blackburn (loan) and Reading whom he joined from Sheffield Wednesday in August 2019.

A talented footballer with 2 international caps for Portugal, but heavily criticised for his work rate.

Joao is the current top scorer at Reading with 3 goals so far this season, over the past two campaigns he has had a goal ratio of 1 every 2 games

 

The Last Six Meetings


Date

Competition

Result

26 Feb 2020

Championship

Reading 0:3 Latics

30 Nov 2019

Championship

Latics 1:3 Reading

09 Mar 2019

Championship

Reading 3:2 Latics

24 Nov 2018

Championship

Latics 0:0 Reading

29 Apr 2017

Championship

Reading 1:0 Latics

05 Nov 2016

Championship

Latics 0:3 Reading

 

Full Record v Reading

Played – 48

Won – 19

Drawn – 11

Lost – 18

 

Connections –

Two that standout are former Latics keeper, Ali Al Habsi, who enjoyed a great couple of seasons with the Royals making 78 appearances and former striker Jason Roberts, bagged a 6 goals in 28 appearances down in Royal Berkshire.

 

Grab a listen to the latest PWU Latics podcast featuring a preview of the Reading game.

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