We live in hope rather than expectation: Reading Preview

The Swans travel to Reading today in a repeat of that incredible final evening of last season when a 4-1 win and Nottingham Forest’s capitulation at home to Stoke secured the Swans a play off spot at the expense of the FEC.  Can history repeat itself and the Swans secure their play off spot again today?

A point today for the Swans will not only secure our play off spot but that of Bournemouth and Barnsley as well just leaving the four teams to jostle for position, home advantage in second legs and possibly even a preferred choice of opposition?

A double irony on today’s fixture is yesterday Nottingham Forest hosted Stoke again but this time they secured a point so maybe even that creates an omen for the Swans to do exactly the same.

You can see what I am doing here can’t you?  I am searching and clinging to glimmers of hope.  The expectation has long since passed in a haze of performances that, quite frankly, have been disgraceful to watch.  Yesterday I read on Facebook comments from Roger Freestone and John Cornforth on the anniversary of our 1994 Autoglass Win who talked about a group of players who would pretty much do anything for each other.   27 years on I see a group of players who sometimes barely look as if they know each other and certainly not a group of players who appear to be giving everything for the shirt.

There seems, sadly, a sense of inevitability about this season and has done since maybe early March.  We did enough in the early months of the season to get ourselves into the right position and I do actually believe that we have enough to get into the play offs already but the inevitability is that we will lose the semi final whoever we are against leaving the record books to show that Steve Cooper has been here two seasons and delivered two top six finishes.   To someone watching from away that will be a good return for “Little old Swansea City”.

Games have come around recently where I have hoped that the team can prove me wrong.  I still have that hope but it is a hope that has gradually faded week in week out as we put in another poor performance after another.  The expectation sadly now is that we will do it again but the hope never completely dies.

I know the team is capable as they have proven that several times this season but the last two months seems to have even taken the expectation out of their own minds, we are not able to put defeats behind us and we are not able to make a change.

The fact that a point will “do” today worries me slightly as I fear that we will go out there and play for that point even though Steve Cooper insists that we will not “I don’t know what sort of message you send out to the players if you play for a draw, we always want to win.

“I think that whatever has happened before is now behind us and we look forward.

“We are in a positive position in terms of the play-offs, and we should take confidence from that and look to get the job done.”

The top two finally officially became out of our reach yesterday thanks to a Watford win which sealed their return to the Premier League whilst Brentford’s win at Bournemouth sealed their play off place.   Bournemouth have a far superior goal difference to Reading which should see them good and Barnsley just need a point or, of course, Reading to drop any.    Add us into that and you have the four teams that will contest the play offs at the end of the season and if the season were to end at the time of writing we play Brentford again.

For now though let’s look to just one game and maybe today is the day that the hope delivers and claims a rare victory over the negative expectation that has been proved right too often.

The game kicks off at 12.00 and can be viewed via Sky Sports.