Can Reading Finally End Their Premier League Exile

After suffering relegation from the Premier League in 2013, Reading Football Club have had to suffer a lengthy exile from the top division of English football and although the opportunity of a return has presented itself on a couple of occasions, it is an opportunity that they have failed to make use of.

For the Royals, they are now embarking on their eighth successive season in the EFL Championship and with the second tier of the league set up being such a war of attrition, it takes something extra special to earn promotion.

Something that has perhaps been lacking from the Berkshire side in the past couple of years and with a third-place finish in 2017 being the high watermark (even if disappointment in the play-offs then followed), there have not been many reasons to be cheerful at the Madejski Stadium.

Of the seven full seasons that Reading have competed in the Championship since the 2013/14 campaign, the club have finished in the bottom half of the table five times and have been more concerned with trying to avoid relegation to League One.

However, there is a belief around the club that the darker days are now behind them and with new manager Veljko Paunovic at the helm, the hope, if not the expectation, is that a promotion charge is on the agenda this season.

Especially when you consider their early season form and with Paunovic overseeing an eight-match unbeaten streak to start proceedings, it is fair to say that his group of players caught the rest of the league rather cold.

Not only was it an eight-game unbeaten run, but it was an impressive set of performances that saw only two points dropped from the first 24 on offer and were it not for a goalless draw away at Middlesbrough, it would have been the perfect start for Reading.

Unfortunately, all good runs must come to an end and it certainly did for Paunovic and his players, as after going unbeaten for the first eight games of the season, they then suffered four straight defeats in the Championship.

A run of results that certainly would have tempered the mood within the Reading camp and perhaps lessened the expectations of their supporters. Then again, their collective expectations would not have been so high before the start of the new season.

While since such a barren run of results, Reading’s Serbian manager has at least navigated his squad through rather choppy waters and in the next six league outings that followed, only one subsequent defeat was recorded.

That loss came at home to a Birmingham outfit, that finished the game with only 10 men and on the evidence of the play throughout, you would have to label this result as nothing more than a ‘coupon buster’

The kind of result that the bookmakers love, if only because it swells their own coffers and when it comes to those who set the prices, there is not an overwhelming amount of confidence in Reading to earn promotion this season.

When looking at the Championship outright market and the odds by Sportsbookreview, they currently have Reading as sixth favourites and if the formbook stays true, then the safety net of the play-offs may have to be deployed.

With those clubs who finish between third and sixth in the table, subsequently afforded a second opportunity to earn promotion, it is this route that may make the most sense for a club that has lost out in the final on three separate occasions.

When it comes to trips to Wembley for the Championship or previously known Division One play-off final, it has been nothing but heartbreak for Reading and if they are to tread this path again at the end of the season, they will hope that fortunes favours this time around.

Of course, the way to avoid such heartbreak completely, is to finish in the top two and with the likes of Bournemouth and Norwich looking to make immediate returns to the Premier League, this may be easier said than done.

Then again, with 46 regular season fixtures to be contested in the Championship, there is still a lot of football to be played and if Reading’s new manager can rediscover the advantage that he and his players had at the start of the campaign, premier promotion may not be a pipe dream after all.