FORGET Leicester winning the Premier League, Bradford reaching the League Cup final or Sunderland’s FA Cup triumph of 1973.
If Reading can clamber out of League One, it would rank amongst the greatest upsets the English game has ever seen.
Even trying to list the Royals’ problems is exhausting. An owner who has wrecked the finances, laid off employees and ensured an almost constant deluge of transfer embargoes and points deductions.
One takeover collapsed, another in limbo, and everybody fighting through the courts whilst the club inches closer to extinction.
Manager Ruben Selles, a popular and unifying figure, quit to join Hull in December leaving complete novice Noel Hunt at the helm. A month later, top scorer Sam Smith was sold to Wrexham.
Yet there they are, a team of kids and cast-offs taking points off Birmingham and Wrexham, propelling themselves into a playoff battle they had no right to even dream of back in August.
The worry, of course, is that promotion would prompt owner Dai Yongge to increase his asking price and further delay a takeover that is desperately required.
But whatever happens off the field, nothing should take away from the commitment and quality displayed by players who don’t even know if they’ll be paid at the end of every month.
If they do seal the most unlikely of promotions, they should be given the freedom of Berkshire.
Cardiff City
Omer Riza is proud of his Cardiff City troops
Championship
OLIVER’S SET FOR BIG STEP
