Defeated Royals Still Control Destiny

21 April 2014
By Hob Nob Anyone?

Ninth placed Reading still find themselves in touch of a play-off finish despite a heavy defeat at Wigan last Friday. Out of form Reading are still in control of their own destiny. Three wins would see the Royals finish sixth after Reading's play-off rivals also had poor results over Easter. Brighton managed just two points from their two Easter fixtures. Their results mean that, despite the 0-3 defeat at Wigan, Reading can move ahead of Brighton, and back into sixth place, if they can win tonight's game in hand at home over Middlesbrough. Ipswich and Bournemouth also did their best to rule themselves out of a promotion challenge with poor results. Both sides only picked up a single point from their games - and that was a 2-2 draw when they faced each other at Ipswich.

It's almost as if no team fancies sixth place, with all sides seemingly doing their best to avoid taking up that last play-off position. You'd have to assume that whoever does manage sixth place will go swiftly out of the play-offs against much better opposition. But then, in theory at least, anything is possible over three games. Only Nottingham Forest emerged from Easter with any credit - their two straight wins put them back in the picture after they seemed highly unlikely to make up the ground. Brighton are sixth on 66 points, with Forest seventh on 65 points. The Royals are two points behind Brighton and three places back. However if Reading can somehow reverse their terrible home form tonight they would be a point clear in sixth with two games left to play.

Championship Table at: 22 April 2014
		Pl	HW	HD	HL	HF	HA	AW	AD	AL	AF	AA	GD	POINTS
5	Wigan	43	12	7	3	35	21	8	3	10	22	21	+15	70
6	Brighton	44	9	7	6	29	21	8	8	6	22	18	+12	66
7	Nottm Forest	44	10	7	5	37	27	6	10	6	28	31	+7	65
8	Ipswich	44	11	6	5	33	23	6	8	8	25	29	+6	65
9	READING	43	7	9	5	34	23	10	4	8	29	30	+10	64
10	Blackburn	44	10	7	5	30	18	6	9	7	33	40	+5	64
11	Bournemouth	44	10	5	7	36	26	7	7	8	27	38	-1	63

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