The third set of matches in another of those crazy busy weeks in the Sky Bet Championship gets underway with a Friday night game which sees the attention heading to Wales for the clash between Cardiff City and Reading.
This should be a competitive match between two teams who picked up late wins in midweek and will be looking to build on that and ease any concerns about the drop as we head into the final quarter of the campaign.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Football channels with the build-up in Wales beginning at 7.30pm and kick off coming at 8pm.
Cardiff City
Whenever a team are into a third manager of a season before February is out you know the season isn’t going to plan. That is where we are with Cardiff City. They began it with Steve Morison and soon got rid of him and went with Mark Hudson but he was dispensed with even quicker than his predecessor and now it is the turn of Sabri Lamouchi to look to turn the fortunes of the Bluebirds around. There wasn’t an immediate bounce under him but they got their first win in midweek so have something to build on.
There have been improvements under Lamouchi. As you would expect with a man with his reputation, he has tightened Cardiff up at the back and now he is working on them going forward. They still aren’t completely convincing in that department with their goals in midweek coming from a well hit direct free kick and a goalkeeping mistake, but the key thing is they don’t have to score three to win these days which will give them some confidence.
Reading
If Reading could play every match at home this season they might be pushing Burnley for the title but unfortunately for them half of their matches are away from home. Thankfully for them though they only have to play half of the games on the road because if they had a full season of it they might already be relegated. Only a rancid Huddersfield side have picked up fewer points on their travels than Reading, who overall this season have lost more than they have won.
Reading have enough of a gap between themselves and the bottom three to be comfortable at the minute but if this away form doesn’t improve soon and their home form were to dip a little they could easily get sucked into a relegation battle so a win here would ease those concerns. I don’t think Reading have enough about them to be involved in the promotion race so it is all about getting another nine or ten points and enjoy a stress free finish to the season.
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Team News
Connor Wickham has been brought into the Cardiff City squad but whether he is in the shape to play for a second time in three days remains to be seen. Jamilu Collins and Ebou Adams are expected to miss the game.
Reading have an extensive injury list to contend with heading into this match. Among the players who remain unavailable to Paul Ince are Andy Yiadom and Lucas Joao while Ovie Ejaria and Tom Holmes are doubts.
Betting
This is one of those Friday night matches where an obvious bet doesn’t really standout. Often that can mean the draw is value but I don’t really like backing them, especially at the end of a busy week. Cardiff got off the mark under Lamouchi earlier in the week and I do expect him to get more of a tune out of this side than the two men before him did but I’m in no rush to back such a low scoring side at even money or worse while there is no way I can chance Reading on the road.
The obvious bet is under 2.5 goals but that is plenty short enough and sometimes these third games in a week can get a bit wild so the bet I’ll take here is over four Asian cards. That means four bookings gets us our money back and five or more wins for us. When these two met in the second week of the season there were six cards and referee Darren Bond must work for Moonpig in his spare time such is the regularity he dishes out cards. He has refereed 26 games this term and showed 121 cards in total, a shade lower than five a match. He has reffed Cardiff twice this season and handed out five and seven cards in those games and he brandished four in the one game he has taken of Reading. These two are physical sides. Reading can easily get over physical and both will want the points badly so I’m expecting this to be a bit feisty. If Cardiff lead you could see them wasting time to protect their lead and getting on the ref’s mind while Reading boss Paul Ince has just clashed with a journalist about their time wasting so we might not need five fouls for the cards here. I like the over in a match where tired legs will be all over the pitch.
Tips
Back Over 4 Asian Cards for a 3/10 stake at 1.98 with Bet365
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