Championship
Saturday 31st December 2011 – Kickoff: 1500hrs
Reading take on lowly Ipswich Town at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday in search of a fourth successive league win and consolidate their place in the play-off positions.
The Royals have been strong at home in recent weeks with impressive wins over Birmingham City, outscoring Peterborough United 3-2, and posting 3-0 wins over West and Brighton respectively. They’ve also held Championship leaders Southampton to a 1-1 draw along with a point against a Middlesbrough side who are very strong on the road.
Reading’s home record stands at 5-4-3 19/13, and have lost just once in their last nine matches on home turf which was a 1-2 loss to fourth placed Cardiff City which was a bit of a surprise but The Royals seem to have got back on track alright.
Leading scorer is striker Simon Church (6 goals) and he’s backed up by former Rotherham striker Adam Le Fondre (5 goals, 3 assists), forward Noel Hunt (3 goals, 1 assist), winger Jobi McAnuff (3 goals, 5 assists), while creative midfielder Jimmy Kebe (1 goal, 6 assists) leads the supply chain along with McAnuff. Experienced defender Ian Harte also joins in the attack and is their set-piece taker.
Ipswich travel south with an increase in confidence following a three match unbeaten run which includes wins over Barnsley and Derby County along with a 1-1 Boxing Day draw at Leicester City, but a very different prospect faces them on this road trip.
Ipswich lost at home to Reading in the original fixture, and unless something extraordinary happens on Saturday afternoon it seems they’ll be heading for a second loss to the Berkshire outfit here. The Tractor Boys tend not to travel too well and have posted just one away win in their last six.
Their away record reads 3-3-5 16/26, and aside from Doncaster Rovers (27 goals), they’ve conceded the second most amount of goals on the road in the division. They’ve recently leaked 4 against Millwall and Burnley and 3 goals at Nottingham Forest and Barnsley; the most alarming part of those figures is that 3 of those four teams are in the lower third of the Championship, which underlines their defensive frailties.
However, they do have a few players capable of causing some serious problems ie striker Michael Chopra (7 goals, 2 assists) who will score goals wherever he plays, Keith Andrews (9 goals), Jason Scotland (4 goals, 3 assists), while Aaron Cresswell leads the creativity with 5 assists. A fit Jimmy Bullard would also be an important asset.
Al in all though, it should be a comfortable home win here for Reading and I’ll back them to win 2-1.
Main Pick: Reading straight win @ 1.70 Sportingbet
Value Pick: Reading AH-1 @ 2.16 Pinnacle looks a solid play if you’re looking for value
