Reading have hit some top form in recent weeks, but I’ve got one eye on League One too. No, I don’t think the Royals will be playing there next season – the revival under Mark Bowen should quell any danger of that – but what happens there in the coming months will make for interesting viewing from a Reading perspective.
After a hugely impressive first half of the season, Wycombe Wanderers sit top of League One and are on track to an unlikely promotion to the Championship for the first time in their history. Not bad for a side tipped for a relegation fight in the summer.
They’ve recently been joined in the running for automatic promotion by Oxford United who, after spending the opening weeks in midtable, ended 2019 in second. They’ve not been in the second tier since the 20th century.
Assuming the Royals haven’t been promoted or relegated by then, it’d mean having two more local sides to take on in the league – Wycombe for the first time ever and Oxford for the first time since 2001. Reading fans should hope that both teams carry on their fine form and end up in the Championship in time for the 2020/21 season.
Why? We really need some good local derbies. Reading seems to be one of the few clubs in England that lacks those, and in recent years we’ve had to make do with trips to West London instead. But playing QPR, Brentford and Fulham – who are all too preoccupied disliking each other anyway – doesn’t have that.
Now, we may not have a rivalry with Wycombe but, as the nearest league club to the Madejski Stadium, playing the Chairboys is good value as a ‘next best thing’. Big, boisterous travelling contingents at a ground just up the road always makes for a good occasion – and a packed-out away end at Adams Park in the League Cup a few months ago made a heck of a racket.
But the opportunity to take on Oxford United twice next season would be even better. There’s much more of a rivalry between the Royals and Us, not least due to the infamous failed attempt at merging the two clubs under the guise of ‘Thames Valley Royals’ in the 1980s.
The two sides may not have played each other competitively in more than 15 years, when Reading visited the Kassam Stadium in the League Cup, but that doesn’t mean bitter feeling isn’t there. Going up against United after all this time is something that I’m sure plenty of Royals fans would relish.
