News and Views
Royals Hope To Continue Form As Charlton Visit
16 October 2015
By Hob Nob Anyone?
As Charlton visit the Madejski Stadium, Reading will be hoping to continue their excellent early season league form that has taken them to third place in the Championship after ten games. In the league the in-form Royals have won five out of the last six matches. The most recent of those wins was the impressive 2-0 home victory over second placed Middlesbrough immediately before the International break.
The International break saw Chris Gunter and Hal Robson-Kanu help Wales to their first major tournament qualification in recent history - but came at a cost as Robson-Kanu limped off in the first half of Wales 2-0 win over Andorra. Robson-Kanu's misfortune will probably see a recall for striker Matej Vydra who should make a return from his recent injury. Robson-Kanu is unlikely to be missing from action for long but it comes at a bad time when he'd made a promising return to the starting eleven. With such a wealth of talent available to manager Steve Clarke he'll have no problem filling the gap and Vydra will be looking to stake his claim in the side.
Vydra's selection is not a certainty as he has only just made a return to full training. Meanwhile, Anton Ferdinand could well be still missing. He had a superb start to the season before picking up yet another injury. Ferdinand is joined by midfielder Stephen Quinn, and goalkeeper Jonathan Bond on the injury list, but thankfully none of the squad are expected to have long-term problems.
Ali Al Habsi had only featured in goal for Reading in their League Cup campaign but stepped in for Bond against Middlesbrough. Al Habsi's clean sheet against one of the Championship's better side was a fair reflection of his excellent all round performance. After plenty of discussion about goalkeeping errors his performance was as solid and confident as you would like.
So, Reading have already shown they can cope with injuries thanks to the depth of the squad and will be expecting to pick up three more points against 17th placed Charlton. Charlton have more extensive injury worries than the Royals and haven't yet won a game away from home in the league this season - a record Reading will be hoping to help them maintain.
| Reading and Charlton - Head to head record (since August 1994) | |
| Games Between Reading and Charlton | 17 |
| Reading Wins | 6 |
| Charlton Wins | 7 |
| Draws | 4 |
| Reading Goals | 20 |
| Charlton Goals | 22 |
| Average Goals Per Game | 2.47 |
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