After rescuing a point against Brentford this weekend, Reading now face up a big task of playing Premier League Swansea City for a place in the next round of the Caraboa Cup (a.k.a League Cup) Both sides are experiencing mixed starts to their season and will hope that a victory tonight will spur a change of results in their respected leagues.

Reading WDWLD form (all competitions)-

Despite that labouring draw against Brentford ,the main positive for Reading is injuries are subsiding with Obita being the latest to return to first team action. Tonight’s team could well be a mix of Jaap’s trusted youngsters from the early rounds but with first team players like Popa and Clement pushing for more game time. However Stam could throw a curve ball and name the same squad as last weekend to ensure that Reading remain in the cup for as a long as possible.

Top Goal Scorer: Liam Kelly- 4 (all comps)

Photo by Ben Hoskins/Getty Images

Swansea City LWWLD (all competitions)-

The main talk tonight will be the return of Wilfred Bony who is bookies favourite to start. The Ivorian will hope to put his Manchester City and Stoke nightmare behind him and regain his once deadly prowess when he first arrived for the Swan’s. Swansea are slowly adjusting to life without ex Reading hero Gylfi Sigurdsson with them currently sitting 14^th in the Premier League. But their recent draw with Tottenham is certainly showing promising signs

Top Goal Scorer(s)- Tammy Abraham , Jordan Ayew, Leroy Fer -2 (all comps)

Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images

What do the stats say?

• Reading have beaten Swansea in the three League Cup ties they have played against each other
• Swansea have won 13 of their last 16 League Cup contest against lower league opponents
• The Royals have only beaten Premier League opposition in one of their past 10 League Cup matches. The Last result was a 3-2 victory against QPR in September 2012.

Head to Head Since 1921 (Source 11v11)

Reading 33

Draw 14

Swansea 29

Classic Meeting: Swansea 4 Reading 2- 30 May 2011- Wembley Stadium

Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images

I regret putting this match in as it brings back terrible memories and it is the one game I refuse to watch back! Reading were simply terrorised by a Scott Sinclair man of the match performance to brutally crush our amazing end of run to the season. This game had everything - Brenden Rodgers return, Red card drama with Jay Tabb being sent off at half time, and of course late goals to bring glimmers of hope!

Reading fought back from 3-0 down with Matt Mill and Noel Hunt bringing the game to a interesting 3-2. Jem Karacan had a shot from distance that hit the post which every fan prayed would go in. But a late Sinclair ended the Wembley dream and Swansea would go on to progress and remain in the Premier League Reading would use this defeat to take the Championship by storm the following year and meet Swansea back in the Premier League.

Prediction

Neither side wants to bow out tonight but with the long season ahead it could be a blessing in disguise so they can focus on their league goals. If Swansea put out a team similar to the Tottenham game then Reading are going to struggle to the quality they possess. However Reading do love a cup run so expect a good contest tonight as I'm sure in front of the home ground the boys will deliver! But on paper I have to give Swansea the edge which i would like to be proved wrong!

Swansea 2 Reading 1