Eng. Championship
2011-10-29 - Crystal Palace vs Reading
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football : English Championship
Saturday 29 October 2011 - Kickoff 3pm
Crystal Palace
Just when you think Palace are going to be brought down to earth, they pull out an impressive win at Ipswich in the League and then back that up with a win in the Carling Cup that sees them progress through to the last 8 of that competition. Dougie Freedman is fast becoming one of the young managers to watch out for in the UK.
Crystal Palace are 4th in the table after their fast start to the season, and they are only 4 points behind Southampton at the top of the pile. The Eagles have a solid home record of 3-2-1 this season, scoring 8 goals and conceding 5, although they will be looking to win more games there if promotion is a real aim for the side.
The team have won 5 of their last 6 games in all competitions while remaining unbeaten in all of those games. Palace have lost just 1 of their 10 games at Selhurst Park this season and they have scored at least 2 goals in 7 of their 10 home games.
Darren Ambrose suffered a knock against Southampton during the week, and will need a late fitness test to determine his availability in this game. Lee Hills and Alex Marrow are both ruled out through injury.
Reading
Reading were expected to be one of the front runners for promotion this season after just missing out in the Play Offs last season with defeat to Swansea in the Play Off Final. They have made a decent start to this season, but they do need to start improving their performances at home if they are to achieve all their goals this season.
The team have gained 17 points this season and sit in 15th place in the Championship, but the majority of their points have come away from home. They are 3-2-1 away from the Majedski Stadium this season, scoring 7 goals and conceding 5.
It looked like things were going a little pear shaped for Brian McDermott when the team lost 5 games in a row in all competitions, but they have since bounced back with a 7 game unbeaten run. The Royals have not lost in 3 games away from home, winning the last 2 of those while scoring 4 goals and conceding 2.
Jay Tabb is back in the squad and there are no new injury worries for McDermott.
Head to Head
Crystal Palace have not won any of their last 6 games at home against Reading over the last 10 years.
They met here last season and drew 3-3, the 4th time they have drawn in the 6 games they have played at Selhurst Park since 2001.
Prediction
This should be a fairly entertaining game for those fans at Selhurst Park tomorrow as both teams like playing football and attacking their opponents and I don't think either team will back down here.
Crystal Palace have made it a habit this season of scoring late goals and they were at it again on Tuesday night as they scored twice in the final 17 minutes to beat Southampton, and they have scored a lot of their goals this season in the final 20 minutes of games.
Reading themselves have been playing well away from home this season and have proved tough to beat.
I was looking at a couple of options for this game, including the time of the last goal coming in the 73rd minute or later (evens at Paddy Power), or the 'Over 2.5 Goals' market (2.10 at various places).
I have settled on there being a late goal in the game as both sides have managed to do that this season in their games, with Palace being regularly scorers in the last 10 minutes and at evens it looks too good to ignore.
The Pick :
Crystal Palace 2-2 Reading
