News and Views
Reading Aim To Build Run At Rotherham
20 October 2015
By Hob Nob Anyone?
Reading take their amazing run of six league victories out of seven matches to Rotherham United tonight, hoping to continue the form that has taken them
to second place in the table. The Royals have made an early claim to be serious promotion contenders and Saturday's 1-0 home victory over Charlton
Athletic at the Madejski Stadium underlined that. It was a long way from Reading's best performance of the season and it was a narrow victory against a side
well in the bottom half of the table, who also finished the match with 10 men. However, Reading always looked comfortable and demonstrated the ability to
grind out victories against sides looking to force a draw.
Rotherham are second to bottom after a poor start to the season and will be looking for only their third win of the season. The Millers have won just one
game at home and one on the road. Their last two matches were defeats but the two matches before that saw them pick up their only league wins of the season.
Rotherham's Last Four Matches:
- 17 October: Brentford 2 Rotherham 1 (L)
- 2 October: Rotherham 1 Burnley 2 (L)
- 26 September: Birmingham 0 Rotherham 2 (W)
- 19 September: Rotherham 2 Cardiff 1 (W)
Steve Clarke is unlikely to make any major changes to his side after they continue to pick up excellent results both home and away. Matej Vydra was expected to be in the squad at the weekend but Clarke saw no needed to rush him back and rested him for some extra days ahead of tonight's match. Vydra will expect to play some part in the fixture although he could be on the bench rather than make an immediate return to the starting eleven. Other than Vydra, the injury list is unchanged from the weekend. That means that Ali Al Habsi will continue in goal with Jonathan Bond still missing. Anton Ferdinand, Stephen Quinn, and Hal Robson-Kanu also will have to wait before returning to action. The defence is almost certain to be unchanged after such a solid performance at the weekend.
Recent history with Rotherham has been mixed and was reflected in the scores last season. We won 3-0 at home in November with Simon Cox scoring twice and Mackie grabbing the other. On the road we lost 1-2 late in the season when Reading's form had taken a serious downturn. Back then the defeat came as no surprise - but things have turned around dramatically since then and Reading will be expecting to pick up some points this time around.
The Royals are big favourites for the win this evening at 17/10. The draw is 12/5, and Rotherham United are big outsiders with the home win giving odds of 17/5.
| Reading and Rotherham - Head to head record (since August 1994) | |
| Games Between Reading and Rotherham | 10 |
| Reading Wins | 5 |
| Rotherham Wins | 3 |
| Draws | 2 |
| Reading Goals | 14 |
| Rotherham Goals | 9 |
| Average Goals Per Game | 2.3 |
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