6.57pm BST 18:57
The team sheets have landed, and these were the names upon them:
Reading FC (@ReadingFC)
Reading starting XI vs Fulham: Al-Habsi, Gunter (c), Blackett, Ilori, Moore, Van den Berg, Evans, Williams, Swift, Grabban, Kermorgant.
May 16, 2017
Reading FC (@ReadingFC)
Reading subs vs Fulham: Jaakkola, Beerens, Mendes, McCleary, Popa, Gravenberch, Kelly.
May 16, 2017
Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC)
TEAM NEWS: Here is your #FFC side, in association with @Coral, that will battle for a place in the Play-Off Final this evening #WeAreFulham pic.twitter.com/Xf6ZQsRUx7
May 16, 2017
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6.50pm BST 18:50
A brief history of the two clubs in facemasks.
Kaspars Gorkss (@EsUnPiens)
Stumbled across this picture today...Best of luck @ReadingFC tonight! BigBadWolf pic.twitter.com/6QBxUAHwNv
May 16, 2017
Facundo Sava of Fulham celebrates scoring against Liverpool in 2002. Photograph: Ben Radford/Getty Images
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4.22pm BST 16:22
Hello world!
For one of these two teams, the season ends tonight. The play-offs are a harsh and brutal place, but reliably dramatic. Tonight, I’m confidently predicting, will be a cracker.
We approach the second leg with the tie more delicately balanced than a Michael Caine getaway bus. We must therefore consider the possibility of the evening ending with a penalty shoot-out, a prospect that will have both the Reading players (50% conversion rate from 12 penalties this season) and Fulham’s (a truly miserable 31% of 13) shuddering with horror. Jaap Stam and his Royals will also be troubled by memories of December’s 5-0 thrashing at Craven Cottage (Daniel Williams was sent off after 54 minutes, but they were already a couple of goals down at that point), while Slavisa Jokanovic’s Cottagers will find their superiority complex lasts only as long as it takes to remember their 1-0 defeat at the Madejski in January. It is, as they say, anyone’s game.
We can expect goals. Fulham hardly ever fail to get on the scoresheet – no team in the division outscored them (though Newcastle and Norwich also scored 85 times), and they have drawn just one blank in the league since they lost to Reading, and even that was more than three months ago. But they have also kept only two clean sheets in that time, and one of those was against Rotherham. Reading’s home record is impressive, with only two defeats in their 23 games putting them second only to Brighton in the Championship’s home table, but then so is Fulham’s away record, with 12 wins in their 23 games making them second only to Newcastle.
You may want a reminder of what happened in the first leg, so here’s our match report from Craven Cottage:
And in the meantime it only remains for me to say hello and welcome. Hold on tight, it’s going to be a hell of a ride.
Updated at 6.45pm BST
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- The Guardian