Reading will host League One promotion favourites and current league leaders Birmingham City at the Select Car Leasing Stadium on Saturday (12.30pm kick-off).
The clubs have been complete polar opposites in terms of investment, but both have their sights set on promotion.
While Reading’s hopes of going up may seem optimistic, they currently sit just four points outside the play-off places.
The Royals have had horrendous financial issues under owner Dai Yongge which has limited the club to only signing free agents and loans for several seasons.
Meanwhile, Birmingham are at the other end of the spectrum and have invested massive money to try and win promotion back to the Championship having gone down last season.
The Blues smashed the League One transfer record to sign striker Jay Stansfield from Fulham for around £15million plus add ons.
Stansfield currently sits top of the goalscoring charts in the division with 16 goals from 23 games.
Birmingham spent around £36million in total in the summer to give themselves an excellent shot at gaining promotion with a significantly bigger budget than any other team in the league.
Birmingham have a nine point lead at the top of the table with a game in hand over second placed Wycombe Wanderers.
Reading and Birmingham met on the opening day of the 2024/25 League One campaign at St Andrews, a game which ended in a draw.
Despite the gulf in transfer spend, it was Reading who were the more impressive side for the majority of the match and went ahead late in the first-half through Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan.
The Royals looked as if they would take three points, but were denied late on when the hosts were awarded a contentious penalty which was converted by Alfie May as the game finished 1-1.
Birmingham’s last visit to the SCL in April 2023 also ended in a 1-1 stalemate. Andy Carroll opened the scoring but Lukas Jutkiewicz levelled as the points were shared.
Predicted Reading line-up: Pereira, Craig, Bindon, Mbengue, Garcia, Savage, Wing, Knibbs, Campbell, Ehibhatiomhan, Wareham
