READING FC will play rivals Swindon Town in a pre-season friendly – but have scrapped plans for a summer tour to Slovenia.

Brian McDermott will take his Royals squad to the County Ground to face the League 1 Robins on Tuesday, July 19 (7.45pm ko).

It will be the first competitive clash between the side for more than 14 years after a 0-0 draw in February 2002 at the same venue when Reading’s Sammy Igoe and Swindon Town’s Alan Reeves and Paul McAreavey were all red carded.

However, the rival clubs did meet in a pre-season friendly at Swindon in 2011 when Reading won 2-1 through a Shane Long penalty and Mathieu Manset header after an Alex Pearce own goal had gifted Robins the lead.

Meanwhile, Royals have shelved plans for a pre-season tour to Europe this year, even though McDermott had began initial preparations for a trip to Slovenia.

The club say the decision was taken in order for McDermott to spend more time on the training pitch at Hogwood Park.

A statement on the Royals website says: “The club have taken the decision not to embark on an overseas pre-season tour this summer.

“Despite preliminary discussions about potentially taking the squad away as part of our summer preparations, with the focus now fully set on building a new-look squad and binding together a new group of players, it was agreed that it would better serve the squad to be primed for 2016-17 with more time on the training pitch at Hogwood Park and a series of away fixtures in this country which many more of our supporters will be able to attend - as well as a Madejski Stadium curtain-raiser which we hope to announce very shortly.”

Reading have confirmed one other pre-season fixture which is a trip to National League side Boreham Wood on Saturday, July 9 (3pm).