Reading v Nottingham Forest (finally arrives)

The long, long wait is over. 97 days without football has been quite long enough & another campaign is set to get underway at the Madejski this Saturday against the same team we started the last campaign against.

'Coming here is a freash start and the added responsibility of being captain has left me raring to go and looking forward to the new season'

Taken from the Official Forest web site

Reading have only just started their summer spending and have brought in long time Forest target Matt Mills, whether he will feature in this match is not yet known as he missed Doncaster's pre-season games with an 'injury'. How much that injury had to do with his impending sale is open to debate though. Reading are one of EIGHT Championship clubs starting the season with a new manager with the former Watford rookie (Brendan Rodgers) taking over the hot seat when former boss Steve Coppell who quit after failing to see them promoted back to the Premiership at the first time of asking. There have been departures from their squad, most notably in Marcus Hahnemann & Kevin Doyle who have both joined Wolves & Leroy Lita who has joined Boro.

The 20 year old winger has come through the Reading ranks and really impressed in pre-season. He is set to make a big impact on the Reading 1st team this season after loan spells with with Southend

The Forest squad is looking very strong at the moment but the defence still seems the weak point. Earnshaw (2), McGoldrick (3) & Tyson (3) have all been on target in pre-season with Blackstock, Adebola & Garner still to get off the mark. Anderson, Majewski & McGugan have all scored too so the midfield seem to be getting in on the goal action too. The only permanent departure from the Forest squad has been Ian Breckin. Both James Perch & Julian Bennett are ruled out with long term injuries.

The much injured striker/winger has been desperate to prove Reading were wrong to let him go, each time we've come up against them though he's been injured. Here's to hoping it's 3rd time lucky for Nathan.

In the 24 previous meetings between these two side in league competition Forest have the upper hand with 11 victories and Reading 8, in total there have been 67 goals scored in all previous league fixtures with Forest scoring 38 of those. Last season Forest didn't concede a goal against Reading & took 4 points from them, scoring just 1 goal themselves.

Ref: Phil Crossley Asistsants G Hambling, W Lindon 4th official M Russell Some will remember Crossley as the ref who failed to send off Gillingham player-manager Andy Hessenthaler for a rugby tackle on Andy Reid 5 years ago.

Opening day fixtures are often very tight affairs so a draw seems the most likely result. Forest can score goals but also also seem set to concede a few. 1 - 1 then seems the best bet.

Weds 12th August: 7:45

Nottingham Forest v Bradford City

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