We are pleased to announce the first of two anticipated pre-season friendlies to be hosted at the Select Car Leasing Stadium this summer...with the visit of the Hammers!
David Moyes’ West Ham United side will make the trip to Berkshire on Saturday 16 July, with kick off at 3pm.
The Royals will be back on home turf against Premier League opposition, having already spent the first week of July in Staffordshire at St George’s Park - a week ending with a behind closed doors friendly against Benfica.
And the match will be played three days before our previously announced visit to AFC Wimbledon on Tuesday 19th July as we continue our preparations ahead of the 2022-23 Championship season.
We can also confirm that we will host National League side Maidenhead United at Bearwood Park for a behind-closed-doors friendly on Tuesday 12 July, kick-off 1pm. Pre-season is beginning to take shape.
The Hammers will be familiar opponents to Royals manager Paul Ince, who began his youth career with the club before making his first team debut against Newcastle United in 1986 before departing for Manchester United in 1989.
And you do not have to go back far to when we last locked horns as the East London side came down the M4 for another summer assignment in July 2021 and ran out 3-0 winners, so Paul Ince’s side will be looking for some friendly revenge this time around.
Our last league meeting in RG2 was a 1-0 Premier League victory for us as Pavel Pogrebnyak’s early strike proved the difference - after we had done the double over them the previous season with our post-Christmas fine run of form en route to the title forcing the Hammers to require a trip to Wembley to join us in the top flight.
Victory, albeit in friendly pre-season circumstances, would prove quite the scalp after a successful previous two seasons for the Hammers - Moyes' men followed up their sixth-placed finish in 2020-21 with qualfication for the UEFA Europa Conference League this time around.
2022-23 will be a second successive season of European football for Moyes’ team after they reached the UEFA Europa League semi finals last season, including memorable ties with Sevilla and Lyon before they were knocked out by eventual winners Eintracht Frankfurt.
Ticket details for the friendly will be announced in due course, so look out for further information on the club's website and social media channels.
