| FA Cup 3rd round |
| Match preview Vs Reading FC Venue: Aggborough Date: 08-01-22 Kick off: 15:00hrs |
Preview: Phil Lench
Big day for this man too
The day is almost upon us and the Harriers will be hoping that eight years on from beating Peterborough Utd in the third round and earning an away tie at, then Premier, Sunderland that we can repeat that dream day once again. With Reading FC struggling in the Championship at this current time then there’s no reason why we shouldn’t. The only downside is that if the game at Aggborough is drawn it’ll go to extra time, then penalties, and so robbing us of another great away day as we experienced at the Posh.
The other sad thing about this game reflects the state of football in this country where the media don’t give two hoots about lower level football and choose to avoid broadcasting the game in favour of bankrolled clubs wallowing in the Chinese betting money that probably lines their own pockets too. That’s their loss really because evidence is there that shows that a backlash against greed is growing.
Reading pay their first, proper (we played them in a friendly at Aggborough a long time ago), visit to us in the hope of getting their season back on track after a six point deduction due to the breaching of the EFL’s profitability and sustainability rules and an inability to recover from that due to player injury, game postponement and perceived poor management. Their manager, Veljko Paunović, is constantly under fire from the fanbase as being out of his depth and unable to find a Plan B.
We haven’t played many games in recent weeks either but we’re still well placed at fifth in the league table due to teams above us losing the games that they have managed to get played. We have also been fortunate with injuries whilst in Russ Penn we have a manager that knows what he’s doing and does have a Plan B.
Readings manager said in yesterdays press that he’ll possibly play a rotated squad because of injuries, a wish to give fringe players a chance and also international call ups. The latter see’s their defensive pairing of Andy Yiadom and Baba Rahman out in Africa for the Cup of Nations tournament and they don’t have any first team quality replacements standing in the wings.
Played for both
They’ll have rookie keeper Coniah Boyce-Clarke cup tied after playing on loan for St Albans City in a previous round and will also be without a smattering of injured, or just on the way back from injury, players such as Liam Moore, Danny Drinkwater, Dejan Tetek, Lucas Joao, Ovie Ejaria, Michael Morrison, Yakou Meite and Tom McIntyre all out or borderline.
In Drinkwater they have a player who won the Premier title with Leicester City and caps for England while they also have the likes of Andy Carroll and Scott Dann in their squad. Carroll ex Liverpool, Newcastle Utd and West Ham Utd while Dann has seen service with Crystal Palace, Blackburn Rovers and Redditch Utd (yes, you read that right).
I’m sure they’ll be able to knock a team + bench together though.
We’ll be without new loan signing Marcus Dinanga with him being cup tied from playing against Gateshead for Altrincham in a previous round. Also Elliot Bonds is no longer with us having gone back to Cheltenham Town the other week. At least we do have Joe Foulkes back with us until the end of the season now after Walsall agreed to it on Wednesday. Apart from Cliff Moyo we’ll be injury free and yamping at the bit.
We might get to see Johnny Mullins too. He’s one of only two that have played for both clubs and he’ll, hopefully, be at Aggborough for the game. The other one is no longer welcome and we don’t ever want to see him here again. I’ll leave it to you to work that one out.
As we all know by now this game is sold out even if not necessarily to all Harriers fans and we know that it won’t really be on the telly box so it’s going to be something of an exclusive game and, hopefully, one to tell your grandchildren about. ‘Grandad tell me about the time Kiddy Harriers beat Reading 6-0 again please’. ‘Well son, it was like this…..’.
Photo © KHFC
Teams:
Harriers from:
Simpson, Emery, Richards, Cameron, Foulkes, Penny, Bajrami, Lowe, Austin, Montrose, Carrington, Martin, Freemantle, Bastable, Tolley, Hemmings, Morgan-Smith, White, Sterling-James.
Reading FC from:
Southwood, Cabral, Holmes, Ashcroft, Morrison, McIntyre, Bristow, Moore, Dann, Halilovic, Rinomhota, Swift, Leavey, Ejaria, Sackey, Camara, Azeez, Drinkwater, Abbey, Tetek, Dele-Bashiru, Stickland, Clarke, Araruna, Hoillett, Laurent, Carroll, Meite, Joao, Puscas, Osorio, Ehibhatiomhan.
Referee: Mr Gavin Ward. Surrey
Talk about the game here
Links to Reading FC websites here
Find Pubs around Kidderminster here