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The pressure is on for Reading and Cardiff on Friday evening as they go head to head in the first-leg of their Championship play-off semi-final.
The Premier League is the place to be for both of these teams and only one can progress to the Wembley final, with Friday’s contest likely to have a significant impact on who comes out on top.
Like with any contest stretched over two games, the first-leg is often a difficult one to approach. Of course you want to go for the win, but it is also very important that you are still in the tie going into the second game.
As the home side though, Reading have to be positive. If they are to progress to the final you would expect that they need to get at least a draw on home turf. Going to Wales behind in the tie would leave them with an extremely tough task.
Brian McDermott’s men are in excellent sprits at the moment though and they will be in a positive frame of mind for the visit of Cardiff. They won their last game of the regular season and have been in good form during the final third of the campaign.
Leading scorer Shane Long has contributed heavily to their impressive goal tally of 77 throughout the season, a total only bettered by Leeds and promoted Norwich. They certainly carry a massive threat going forward and will be confident of continuing this on Friday evening.
As for Cardiff, it is a case of picking themselves up for the play-off campaign. They will still be disappointed about missing out on automatic promotion and especially the 3-0 home defeat to Middlesbrough that all but ended their chances.
Dave Jones’ men haven’t been in the best form either, winning just one of their final four games. This led to them being leapfrogged into 3rd position by Swansea, meaning the Welsh side would compete with Reading in the second semi-final of the week.
After suffering defeat in the play-off final last year to Blackpool last season, Cardiff know all about heartache at this stage of proceedings and they will surely be determined to go all of the way this time.
Looking at the team news for this one, the most significant news for Reading is that Mikele Leigertwood has been passed fit.
As for Cardiff, they will be able to call upon fit-again keeper Tom Heaton after his recovery from a groin strain.
As with the Nottingham Forest v Swansea game, this is an extremely tough one to call. Reading are in better form, but Cardiff probably have more match-winners in their ranks.
There really could be a case made for each side’s chances of progressing to the final as they play their part in arguably the most competitive Championship play-off campaign for many years.
