Reading saw their lowest crowd of the season so far- and lowest league crowd for over 20 years- during their five-goal rout over Carlisle United.

On a freezing cold evening, less than 8,500 were recorded as present at the SCL Stadium for a battle between two relegation-threatened sides.

Storming to a 5-1 win over the Cumbrians, over 500 had made the 600+ mile round trip to Berkshire from the North-West.

Despite impressing on the pitch, it is the lowest league crowd of the season so far, over 1,000 less than the visit of Fleetwood Town last season despite more than five times the amount of away supporters travelling.

Overall, the Royals' average crowd sits just below the 12,000 mark- still comfortably among the best in the third tier but down year-on-year for the last decade.

You have to go back to February 2018, against Sheffield in the third tier, for a crowd below 7,000.

This mirrors the on-field fall, with Reading staring at relegation to the fourth tier for the first time since the early 1980s.