Swans v Reading | Vital Football

Swans v Reading

K

keith margam

Vital Football Legend
Reading are the visitors to the Liberty Stadium on Wed 30 Dec 20:00 in our final game of 2020 (Sky Sports and SwansTV). It will be interesting to see how the new pitch plays after being relaid in record time since being dug up after the last home match against Barnsley on the 19th December.
Last time we played Reading was at the Madjeski Stadium on 22 July under Mark Bowen, and the emphatic win took us into the play-offs.
Reading 1 (Puscas pen) - Swans 4 (Brewster, Routledge(2), Cullen)
This season Bowen has already departed and ex-Chicago Fire’s Head Coach Veljko Paunovic is Reading’s new manager.
Reading are a different proposition this season and are in sixth spot with 11 wins under their belt. Reading were unbeaten for the first 8 games of the season with 7 wins and 1 draw and were top of the table on 22 points, until they lost 3-2 at Coventry on 30 Oct. The next 13 games Reading gained only 14 points. Last Saturday they beat Luton 2-1 at the Madjeski.
On the injury front Lucas Joao (11 goals from 16 matches this season) and left back Omar Richards are set to return.
Reading’s last 6 away games:
W1 D2 L3 F8 A12
19/12 Brentford 3 - Reading 1
12/12 QPR 0 - Reading 1
2/12 Sheff Wed 1 - Reading 1
25/11 Millwall 1 - Reading 1
21/11 Bournemouth 4 - Reading 2
30/10 Coventry 3 - Reading 2
 
Smith in for Dhanda:

Swansea City: Freddie Woodman; Ben Cabango, Ryan Bennett, Marc Guehi; Connor Roberts, Korey Smith, Jay Fulton, Matt Grimes (captain), Jake Bidwell; Andre Ayew, Jamal Lowe.

Substitutes: Steven Benda, Ryan Manning, Viktor Gyokeres, Wayne Routledge, Yan Dhanda, Joel Latibeaudiere, Oli Cooper, Jordon Garrick, Kasey Palmer.

Reading: Rafael Cabral, Tomas Esteves, Michael Morrison (captain), Tom McIntyre, Michael Olise, Andy Rinomhota, Sam Baldock, Ovie Ejaria, Josh Laurent, Tom Holmes, Alfa Semedo.

Substitutes: Luke Southwood, Omar Richards, John Swift, Sone Aluko, Nahum Melvin-Lambert, Tennai Watson, Ryan East, Jeriel Dorsett.
 
FT: 0-0
We should have won this, opportunity missed. Disappointing, plenty of chances for Swans to wrap this up but Rafael made some excellent saves especially a header from Ayew and a Latibeaudiere header saved low down to the left of the goal line. Guehi skied a good chance. MacIntyre nearly snatched it near the end, Woodman tipping his header over from Reading’s first corner.
 
We had 6 shots on target without a goal. We had 4 shots on target against QPR last match and scored two goals.
Two hand ball penalty appeals, on another night we would have been awarded them, harsh, but seen them given against us many times.
Swans 0 - Reading 0
Possession: 58% - 42%
Shots 11 - 8
On Target: 6 - 3
Passing accuracy: 80% - 76%
Corners: 7 - 2
Fouls: 12 - 14
Cards: 1Y - 0Y
 
Key defender Ryan Bennett going off with a hamstring injury is a big worry, hopefully he’ll only miss a couple of matches.
His replacement Joel Latibeaudiere did well though, fair play, and almost scored with a towering header. With Joel in the side our back three are all 20 years old.
 
We've played far worse than that and won games comfortably, Barnsley being one recently at home. We dominated which was good to see and we missed some chances but we at least created them. Only remember Reading having one decent effort on goal and Woodman was quiet. Lowe was excellent again and it looks like his recent flurry of goals has done him the world of good.
 
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