The battle between relegation candidates Reading and Aston Villa will take place on March 9, 2013 at 1500 GMT at the Madjeski Staduim in Reading.
Both these teams have struggled to find their feet this season and are reeling in 18th and 19th spot. Reading will be looking to somehow end a three game losing streak.
Reading has quite a few concerns entering this game, the first blow for Reading is that second choice keeper Adam Fedrici is still unavailable due to an ankle injury and he will be replaced by third choice ex-Villa keeper Stuart Taylor.
The second blow is Pavel Pogerbnyak who will be watching from the side-lines serving his second match ban due to the red card he got two weeks ago, giving super substitute Adam Le Fondre another chance to surprise with a starting spot.
Aston Villa will miss Fabian Delph as he has accumulated 10 yellow cards and will serve a two match ban. The injury list for Villa seems never ending with Stylian Petrov, Darren Bent, Marc Albrighton, Gary Gardner and Richard Dunne all ruled out for this all important clash.
Paul Lambert may also miss Ron Vlaar as he sustained a calf injury. His inclusion will be subject to a late fitness test.
Statistics tell us that Reading will come out on top as they have kept three clean sheets this season and all of those have been in the last six games that they have played and Aston Villa have not won 20 of their last 22 away games.
Villa have won this particular fixture five out of the last six times winning earlier in the season 1-0.
The player to watch will be Villa’s Christian Benteke.
Expected Line-ups: Reading: Stuart Taylor, Stephen Kelly, Adrian Mariappa, Alex Pearce, Ian Harte, Jimmy Kebe, Mikele Leigertwood, Hope Akpan, Jobi McAnuff, Adam Le Fondre and Noel Hunt
Aston Villa: Brad Guzan, Matthew Lowton, Ron Vlaar, Ciaran Clark, Bennett, Ashley Westwood, Karim El Ahmadi, Andreas Weimann, Charles N’Zogbia, Gabriel Agbonlahor and Christian Benteke