Preview: Reading vs Huddersfield Town - prediction, team news, lineups

Reading and Huddersfield Town square off on Saturday afternoon having endured contrasting starts to the new League One campaign.

While the home side suffered defeat at Lincoln City, Huddersfield head to the Select Car Leasing Stadium on the back of a convincing win over Leyton Orient.

Match preview

Having signed the calibre of players that they have during the summer, it felt imperative that Huddersfield started the campaign in style under Lee Grant.

An early goal in the 3-0 victory over Leyton Orient - last season's playoff runners-up - set them on their way, before Alfie May and Ruben Roosken netted in the 55th and 90th minutes respectively.

Grant will accept that it may take time for his new additions to gel with the established crop at the John Smith's Stadium, but everything seems set up to go on a promotion push.

The signing of May could prove to be the key addition. The 32-year-old - with 90 goals and 19 assists from 249 games at this level - revealed on the recently-released Birmingham City documentary on Amazon that he was due to sign for Huddersfield 12 months before linking up with Blues.

Despite his 16 strikes and eight assists in Birmingham's title-winning campaign, he was allowed to eventually move to the Terriers, and his penalty last week got him off to the perfect start to life at Huddersfield.

As for Reading, Noel Hunt would have been desperately disappointed with a 2-0 defeat at Lincoln in their opening fixture.

Some notable additions for the third tier of English football have been made, but the frustration of losing 4-0 in their final friendly against Portsmouth seemingly lingered against the Imps.

Hunt can be satisfied with his record at Reading, yet he is now on 12 wins, 10 draws and 10 defeats from his 32 matches in charge.

Unless he quickly gets Reading back on track, the Royals hierarchy may contemplate a change with this season's squad feeling far stronger than the one in 2024-25.

Reading League One form:

Huddersfield Town League One form:

Team News

Hunt will almost certainly tinker with his Reading XI with Daniel Kyerewaa, Liam Fraser, Paddy Lane and Matty Jacob among the new signings pushing for a first start.

Ben Elliott and Mark O'Mahony's places could both be at risk, as could left-back's Jeriel Dorsett.

Kamari Doyle was signed from Brighton & Hove Albion earlier this week but may only be selected on the substitutes' bench.

Huddersfield duo Sean Roughan and Marcus Harness will both be assessed after suffering injuries against Leyton Orient.

Roosken and Joe Taylor are both on standby in what may prove to be the only alterations made by Grant.

Reading possible starting lineup:

Pereira; Abrefa, Stickland, Burns, Jacob; Fraser, Wing, Savage; Camara, Ehibhatiomhan, Lane

Huddersfield Town possible starting lineup:

Goodman; Gooch, Whatmough, Low, Roughan; Ledson, Kane; Harness, Wiles, Miller; May

We say: Reading 1-2 Huddersfield Town

Although Reading deserve respect after their near-miss with last season's playoffs, we cannot ignore the statement performance that Huddersfield delivered last week. Therefore, we are backing the Terriers to battle their way to victory by the odd goal in three.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.