Bray to face Reading in friendly

With the English and Scottish leagues having started, the time for summer friendlies should have passed. But due to the fact that Premier League side Reading have no game this weekend they have decided on a trip to the Wicklow coast to take on Bray Wanderers.

A friendly between the two sides was part of the arrangement when Pierce Sweeney was transferred from Bray to the English side earlier in the summer, and with Reading having a free weekend manager Brian McDermott sees this coming Sunday as perfect timing.

Speaking to the club’s website, McDermott said, “We are very much looking forward to the game and are very grateful to Pat Devlin for inviting us over. When we signed Pierce in the summer we had a verbal agreement about getting a game arranged and this is absolutely perfect for us with the way our fixtures have panned out. 

“Pat is a friend of our club and I know we’ll get a great welcome when we come over. Bray are playing on Friday as well of course, so it’s fantastic they’ve been able to accommodate us two days later. As a club we’ve always had strong connections with Ireland, we’ll be bringing the strongest possible squad this weekend and it is an important game for us.”

McDermott intends to bring every available first team player that is not due to go on international duty during the following week. The game will be played at the Carlisle Grounds on Sunday 2 September with a 4pm kick-off.