Bournemouth Can Strengthen Their Promotion Chances Against Reading

Bournemouth will be hoping to stretch their lead at the top of the Championship table with a win away at lowly Reading this evening. The Cherries are currently one point clear of Norwich at the top of the second tier of English football but could go four clear should the second placed side fail to get past Leeds and the other two teams involved in the race for automatic promotion to the Premier League - Watford and Middlesbrough - also lose their respective matches.

Failure to get the better of Reading and wins for all three of the chasing pack would see Eddie Howe`s men slide into fourth position with just four games remaining. The Dorset club have all but guaranteed themselves a play-off position though would absolutely prefer to forego the lottery of the play-offs and be promoted as one of the top two clubs in the division.

They face a Reading side who are all but safe from the perils of relegation to League One, just one point being enough to secure their Championship status for another season. A win for the 18th placed club would see them climb above Bolton should the Wanderers lose, whilst if the Berkshire club fail to beat Bournemouth they could slide into 20th position.

The two clubs have met once already this season, this being in the reverse fixture at the Cherries` Goldsands Stadium. Bournemouth ran out the 3-0 winners on this occasion back in October, Reading being under former manager Nigel Atkins before he was replaced with former West Bromwich Albion boss Steve Clarke.

Despite the high tally of goals scored in this game, the match was goalless at half-time though it only took five minutes after the restart for Callum Wilson to put the home club in front. Brett Pitman then managed to grab himself a brace in less than 10 minutes to see the game slide out of Reading`s reach.

Betvictor have 12/1 on this reverse fixture ending 3-0 to Howe`s Cherries once again with william hill`s 9/4 saying that the match will be goalless at half-time. Stan James have the best price on Wilson bagging the first goal for the second time against the Royals, that`s 17/4 whilst bet365`s 17/2 says that Pitman will be able to earn himself two or more goals once again.

Indeed it is the away side who are the favourites to do the double over Reading. The trio of betfred, ladbrokes and Totesport all have 8/13 on a Bournemouth win. Whilst a draw can be picked up at the best price of 10/3 at bet365, most bookmakers have 11/2 on the home side recording a victory over the promotion hopefuls.

Such a win for Clarke`s men would be something of a surprise with the club having failed to record a victory over any of their last five opponents. They have, however, picked up three draws in their last three games.

At home, their recent record is much better with two of these draws coming at the Madejski Stadium as well as a 2-1 win over Brighton and Hove Albion. They have earned themselves five points from their last five home matches, scoring three goals. Jamie Mackie was responsible for two of these goals (both against Brighton) and he can be backed at 14/1 (bet365, Betvictor) to score the first goal in the match. He is a 50/1 (bet365) chance to hit two or more goals past Bournemouth.

The Cherries are without a defeat in any of their last nine matches. They have scored 11 goals in their last five and are available at 12/5 (Coral) to score over 2.5 goals.

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14/04/2015     © Frixo 2024