The incredibly demanding Championship schedule continues on Friday night when the league leaders Reading look to open up a massive nine point gap at the top of the table ahead of the remainder of the matches in this round when they travel to Coventry City.
The Sky Blues started their season brightly but they have faded in recent times having picked up just two points in their last six outings, a run they will be eager to end here to give themselves some positive vibes heading into another heavy week of action.
Where to Watch
The match will be shown live on the Sky Main Event and Sky Football channels with the program beginning at 7pm and the match itself kicking off at 7.45pm.
Coventry City
With four points from their opening three matches and the one defeat in that time coming in that time in narrow fashion to then high fliers Bristol City, it looked like Coventry were going to be extremely competitive in this division, their first back at this level in quite some time. Things have gone a little sour since then however with just the one point from five matches but in those games they have played two of the top four and the fancied Blackburn and Brentford.
That is a tough schedule at any stage let alone right now where there is literally no time to prepare for the next match. It doesn’t get any easier here either with the leaders coming to town. One thing which would help the Sky Blues is keeping 11 men on the pitch and if they can do that they can then tighten up a little defensively. Nobody has conceded more than their 16 goals this season so if they are to survive this term they must tighten up.
Reading
Although there has been serious investment at the Madejski Stadium over the last couple of years, I don’t think anyone would have expected the start to the season that they have made. I’ve not seen them against my own side Luton yet this season so I made sure I watched their match with Blackburn Rovers in midweek and it was hard not to be impressed by what they delivered. While they were helped on their way they looked a very impressive unit.
The Royals have the wonderful combination of having conceded the fewest in the league and are the second highest scorers behind Blackburn Rovers so they are ticking along quite nicely at the minute. They have always had good athletes up top and in attacking positions but now there is an organisation and formation that allows everyone to flourish. Only Middlesbrough have been able to take points off Reading so far this season.
Special Offer
Opt in and place 5 accumulators either in a Boylesports shop or online and get an acca free! Click the image below to bet. ALL CUSTOMERS! 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Team News
Mark Robins may need to rest and rotate his squad for this match in what will be their third match in six days which could see the likes of Tyler Walker, Liam Kelly, Maxime Biamou and Callum O’Hare in line to come into the side.
Ovie Ejaria missed the win over Blackburn in midweek but it is hoped he will have recovered enough to play some sort of part in this match. Yakou Meite will be assessed ahead of the game but is expected to be fit.
Betting
It is hard not to get on Reading in this match especially as there is a fair amount of draw cover available on them as well. I say that because at this time of the season things like preparation time and squad size are really coming to the fore and the fact that Reading have invested in their squad should give them the chance to move one or two in and out and maintain the intensity that they like to play with whereas Coventry are a little lighter in terms of depth in quality.
The other reason to like Reading is when the matches come along at this rate of knots you feel less tired when you are winning games as opposed to when you are losing them. Clearly Reading are the better of the two sides and are a physical threat as well as a quality one. There is no real pressure on them with the start they have made to the season and so if there is a winner in this match it feels much more likely to be them.
Tips
Back Reading (-0.25AH) to beat Coventry City for a 3/10 stake at 2.04 with BetVictor
Back them here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2020
