Championship promotion hopefuls Reading continue their campaign with a trip to Watford on Saturday evening.
The Royals, relegated from the Premier League in 2008, are currently fifth in the second tier and have their sights firmly set on a return to the top flight. However, they have stumbled in recent weeks and will be hoping to steady the ship because a couple of negative results could see them drop right down the congested Championship table. A 3-1 defeat to Cardiff City was followed by a shock FA Cup defeat at the hands of Stevenage Borough, and they will be desperate to stop the rot here.
A glance at the Championship table would suggest Reading will do that here, with Watford down in 18th place. While the Hornets may be just six points clear of the relegation zone, they are also only nine points off the play-off places. Their home form has been decent of late with some good results – draws against Cardiff City and Leeds United as well as a convincing win over Doncaster Rovers – and that would suggest they will be no pushover at Vicarage Road (Watford 13/8, Draw 23/10, Reading 13/8 @
BetVictor).
Reading manager Brian McDermott will be concerned that the goals have dried up for his strikers in recent weeks. Simon Church (12/5 anytime goalscorer @
Paddy Power) has not found the next since the win at Leeds in mid-December, while the drought of Adam Le Fondre and Noel Hunt goes back further. Le Fondre (21/10 anytime goalscorer @
bet365)) has not scored since November 29 and Hunt (9/4 anytime goalscorer @ StanJames) is goalless since his injury-time winner at Ipswich Town three days before that.
Marvin Sordell has found his goalscoring boots for Watford in recent weeks with three goals in his last three outings, and he is 21/10 in bet365’s anytime goalscorer market.
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