Reading-West Ham United Preview

LONDON (SE) - Reading will say goodbye to the Premier League Sunday when they visit Upton Park to play West Ham United.

The Royals (6-10-21) have known their fate for some time but will be looking to continue their preparations for a season in the Championship, building on from promising performances in their recent 4-2 win over Fulham and 2-0 defeat to Manchester City.

"We allow our players to play the ball and make mistakes, because that's the only way they're going to improve," said Reading manager Nigel Adkins. "There's lots of positives that we're going to take moving forward to the future.

"All being well we'll have a good summer from a recruitment point of view, then when we arrive for next season we look forward to a campaign that's going to be a challenging one, a demanding one, but one that's full of desire, ambition, hope and drive at Reading Football Club. It's going to be another great year to follow."

West Ham (12-10-16) would secure a top-half finish with a win, but manager Sam Allardyce is already looking ahead to improving for next season.

"It has gone to plan," said Allardyce, who agreed a new contract with the club this week. "Trying to get better is our main priority, of course.

"I hope there will be less business to be done as there has been over my first two years. I hope there will be single figures in terms of playing coming in. It will bring us more stability but I've got to choose the right player to make us better for next season and not think about standing still, even though we have had a fantastic season this season."

West Ham are without James Tomkins (calf) and George McCartney (knee), while Reading have doubts over Adam Federici (ankle) and Jimmy Kebe (groin).

The Hammers have lost just four home games and are unbeaten in four at Upton Park. However, Allardyce's side have failed to score in either of their last two games and have won just one of their last seven overall.

Even a win wouldn't save Reading from their worst points total for a season. The Royals have won just one of their last 12 games and have failed to score in six of those matches.

Only Stoke City have committed more fouls and picked up more yellow cards than the Hammers' 452 and 72, respectively, while Reading have allowed more shots (603) and shots on target (225) than any other team in the Premier League.

Reading won 1-0 when these teams met at the Madejski Stadium in December, with Pavel Pogrebnyak scoring the winner after just five minutes. That was Reading's third straight win over the Hammers, and they have won seven and drawn two of the 12 all-time meetings.