Reading vs Huddersfield Town: Match Preview

After a heavy defeat at the weekend, Reading are looking to bounce back against promotion favourites Huddersfield Town.

Reading suffered a heavy 5-2 defeat last weekend against Bolton Wanderers and are looking for something to lift the spirits of a club that’s slowly in decay due to bad club management. (I spoke about it a lot in my last preview, go check it out).

After beating Bolton two weeks ago, Huddersfield lost to mid-table Northampton Town 3-1 last Saturday and looked very unconvincing, being unable to compete against a side that they should have beaten.

In the preview I will speak on both club’s fall from the playoff final, the predicted lineup and much more!

What? League One, matchday seven

Season? 2024/25

Who? Huddersfield Town

Where? Select Car Leasing Stadium

When? Saturday September 28

Time? 12:30

Opposition manager? Michael Duff

That game…

One of the most memorable games in my head is the playoff final in the 2016/17 season and, sadly for me, it’s not for a good reason.

Actually, that month wasn’t great. Dai Yongge took over the club, giving us the first false hope of many to come over seven years. Then we lost on penalties, missing our chance to be in the Premier League once again, potentially changing the fate of the club. But it wasn’t to be. The following seasons included two 20th-place finishes, followed by 14th, seventh, 21st and then relegation from the Championship in 22nd place.

Huddersfield Town won promotion to the Premier League, managing two consecutive seasons in the top flight before being relegated in the 2018/19 season. They then managed to survive in the Championship for three seasons, including an impressive third-place finish, before being relegated last season, joining the Royals down in League One for the 2024/25 season.

Let’s imagine we did win the playoff final: what potentially could have happened? Would Dai have funded the club more than he did? Would we have kept players like John Swift? Would we still be Premier League now?

We’ve all imagined alternate realities where we didn’t miss that penalty. With the signings we made that season and the season after, it would have been very likely that we were relegated straight back to the Championship, but would Dai have made some different signings?

Yes, I think he would have. He took over the club when it was in its best position to be a Premier League club, and I think we would have still ended up in a similar position to where we are now, but it would’ve given us more of a chance.

The fact that Huddersfield themselves have found their way back down to League One shows that maybe this was our fate all along. But we will never know.

Reading youth

I think a small mention for this week needs to go to the under-21s after their 2-1 win against Jong Ajax. I won’t go into detail about this: if you do want details then look at Sim’s match report.

But a lot of the praise must go to Noel Hunt. He has been through thick and thin over the past years as a player, under-21s manager and interim manager for the first team, and I feel it’s time we put a little more respect on his name. His blood runs through the club with the massive impact he has made and the help he has given the club in keeping us alive.

He was able to take League One Reading’s under-21s into the Premier League International Cup. That is a huge achievement. Not only that, but he has beaten Ajax, who are renowned to have one of the best academies in the world. What an achievement! I hope he is with the club for a long time as he is a treasure.

The lineup

Similar to last week’s lineup, Joel Pereira is still injured, but there isn’t a dilemma this week. Coniah Boyce-Clarke played in the under-21 game during the week, meaning David Button is going to start at the weekend.

I think Ruben Selles will use a similar starting lineup as he did against Bolton because, despite the loss, these are players that he can trust and, when we don’t concede first, we have the capability to see out the match.

This means I think the rest of the lineup will be Michael Craig, Amadou Mbengue, Tyler Bindon, Kelvin Abrefa, Lewis Wing, Ben Elliott, Harvey Knibbs, Chem Campbell, Sam Smith and Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan.

I think the big impact player in the game will be Knibbs, who is influential to how the attacking players operate. How he moves without the ball allows Campbell and Ehibhatiomhan to run the channels and get the ball into Smith with ease.

Score prediction: 2-1 Royals!

Come on you Royals!