Reading v Cardiff - Playoff SF 1st Leg

grenache

v

Friday 13 May, Madejski Stadium, Kick Off 19:45, Live on SS1 and BBC Radio 5 Live.





Latest Odds (betfred.com) Reading 6/5, Cardiff 5/2, Draw 5/4.


TEAM NEWS

Reading's on-loan midfielder Mikele Leigertwood has been passed fit for Friday's play-off encounter.

Leigertwood suffered an ankle injury during the Royals' win against Derby, but the problem has cleared up.

Cardiff hope keeper Tom Heaton, who missed out against Burnley, recovers from a groin strain in time to play.

Mark Hudson was substituted in that game but boss Dave Jones insisted the change was tactical, and not related to the defender's recent knee injury.

MATCH PREVIEW

Beaten by Blackpool in last year's Wembley showdown, Cardiff City make another attempt to reach the Premier League via the play-offs and end the Welsh club's long wait for a return to the top flight, which they last graced in 1962.

Boss Dave Jones - the Championship's longest serving manager - was a forlorn figure after last season's defeat, but tasted play-off success with Wolves in 2003 and would dearly love to repeat that feat with the Bluebirds.

His Reading counterpart Brian McDermott, a former Cardiff player, led the Royals to the thick of the promotion race with a brilliant run during the second half of the campaign. Their season's tally of 77 goals was bettered only by Leeds and Norwich.

Cardiff, on the other hand, go into this tie having won only one of their last four matches - a run which saw them not only miss out on automatic promotion, but also leapfrogged by rivals Swansea, who finished above them in third.

MATCH FACTS

Head-to-head

•Reading and Cardiff have each won 19 of the 55 previous meetings.

•The Royals' last home win against Cardiff was a 5-1 victory in January 2006.

Reading

•Reading drew an unsurpassed 17 Championship games during the regular season.

•They are hoping to become the seventh club to reach the Premier League via the play-offs after finishing a season fifth. The last was Burnley in 2009.

•Shane Long is set to make his 200th Reading appearance.

Cardiff

•Cardiff have won three and drawn two of their last five away games, and have not been beaten on the road since losing at Crystal Palace on 8 March.

•This is City's fifth play-off campaign, and their second as a Championship club.

•They are aiming to become only the third club to reach the Premier League via the play-offs after finishing the season fourth. The others were Leicester (1994) and Charlton (1998).



This should be a really good game and if its anything other than a Reading victory, i will be quite surprised.

Paully D

Come on Reading!

3hn2givr7mx1sc

G'wan Cardiff!

tim_holsters

Reading for me. I think Forest will just edge past Swansea and then beat the winners of this tie.

LuckyGent88

Starting line-ups for tonight

Reading

• 01 Federici
• 02 Griffin
• 05 Mills
• 15 Khizanishvili
• 23 Harte
• 04 Karacan
• 08 Leigertwood
• 11 McAnuff
• 19 Robson-Kanu
• 09 Long
• 10 Hunt

Cardiff

• 43 Bywater
• 02 McNaughton
• 12 Keinan
• 14 Quinn
• 07 Whittingham
• 11 Burke
• 20 Olofinjana
• 23 Blake
• 25 Emmanuel-Thomas
• 09 Bothroyd
• 39 Bellamy

Suppose i'll go for the Irish boys with Reading. 2-1 victory tonight.

The_Kew_Tour

Reading all the way

Headshot

Long would do a good job for liverpool imo

Woody_FX

Want the Irish boys are reading to go up! Though the shout for Long for Liverpool.. i dnt think so. I wish he was of that quality but I dnt think he is clinical enough.

grenache

It was a poor enough game. I'd say if the two of them played until midnight they still would not have scored. Cardiff were toothless up front, and without Bellamy in the second leg i expect Reading to go through.

That_Guy

Well that wasn't great. Reading's work rate is sensational though and really sets up the second leg nicely.

Cardiff with the best home record play Reading who have the best away record if I recall correctly.

Open to correction on that.

Paully D

The 2nd leg is kicking off now on SS1.