READING FC are back on the road this weekend with a trip to face strugglers Stoke City.
The Potters have picked up just one point from their last four Championship matches which has them hovering dangerously close to the relegation zone.
Going into the contest, Stoke are seven points and six places behind Reading in the table.
With three defeats in their last four, Stoke collected a point away at Rotherham United on Boxing Day, but have now lost three games on the bounce against Burnley, Preston and Sheffield United.
Their third consecutive defeat occurred at the weekend against promotion chasing Sheffield United who took the points with a brace from Jayden Bogle and a goal from Iliman Ndiaye despite Nick Powell’s strike for Stoke.
A string of bad results means that Stoke are just four points above the relegation zone in a tightly contested section of the table.
Stoke are currently under the management of Alex Neil who decided to depart from fellow Championship club Sunderland earlier in the season despite winning them promotion the previous season.
Sunderland, who are now managed by Tony Mowbray, are in 10th position and eight points above Stoke.
Paul Ince’s team were the victors when the teams met in September at the Select Car Leasing Stadium.
Lucas Joao netted after just two minutes and after Ben Wilmot had equalised for the visitors, Joao found his second of the match from the penalty spot which was enough to give Reading three points.
Reading lost out 3-2 on their last away trip to Stoke which came in August 2021.
John Swift and Liam Moore scored on that day for the Royals, but Sam Surridge scored the decider with five minutes to play.
Reading’s last away success at Stoke came in October 2005 in their historic season on the way to clinching the Championship title and consequently promotion to the Premier League for the first ever time.
Dave Kitson scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot which stretched Reading’s unbeaten run to 16 games under Steve Coppell.
