Sports Blog 25/05/2017: Championship Play-Off Final Preview – Huddersfield vs Reading, Monday 29th May 2017

Will Huddersfield or Reading be joining Newcastle and Brighton in the 2017/18 Premier League?

Though they are in Bank Holiday Monday’s play-off final, Huddersfield may arguably feel a bit disappointed where they finished up this year. For the first couple of months of the season they were top of the Championship, and while they gave up that position following an October to November slump, they spent most of winter knocking on the door of automatic promotion.

However, things started to go seriously wrong in early March. A sharp drop in form meant that the Terriers limped to the finish line, losing 7 of their last 13 games to close out the season in 5th place, 12 points behind runners-up Brighton.



They very nearly made a mess of their play-off semi-final as well. A goalless draw a home put a lot of pressure on the return leg, and Huddersfield almost couldn’t cope; it took a 73rd minute own goal from Tom Lees to get the Terriers back in it, after Sheffield Wednesday had gone ahead just after the break. Yet David Wagner’s men proved their mettle in the end, beating Wednesday 4-3 in the penalty shoot-out that ensued.

Like Huddersfield, Jaap Stam’s Reading have long been candidates for promotion, if not of the automatic kind. From November onwards they were ensconced in the play-off zone, eventually climbing to 3rd place. This set up a semi-final against Fulham, where a 1-1 draw in London was followed by a narrow 1-0 win at the Madejski Stadium, a penalty from Yann Kermorgant early in the second half sending Reading to Wembley.

Despite being 35, Kermorgant will be the highest scoring player on the pitch on Sunday, with the French journeyman nabbing 19 goals in all competitions. That’s more than Huddersfield’s Elias Kachunga – 10 years Kermorgant’s junior – who has scored 13 times since arriving on loan from FC Ingolstadt 04 last summer.

The finalists’ 2 previous meetings this season doesn’t give a huge insight into who will prevail on Monday. Reading won a fiery 1-0 fixture back in September, a game that saw 6 yellows and 1 red (mainly from Huddersfield); the Terriers took all 3 points at home, however, thanks to a late goal from Philip Billing. It’s going to be tight, but our Spreadex traders have plumped for Wagner and co., offering a Huddersfield/Reading Goal Supremacy spread of 0.2-0.4 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.15-2.35.