Reading v Forest: Match Preview

The Reds’travel to the Madejski Stadium on Saturday, to take on high flying, promotion hopefuls Reading. Without a single new addition to the squad at the time of writing, it will be a tough ask to come away from this game with anymore than a point.

A draw will be seen as a positive result by Billy Davies and the fans. It’s been six games since a win and apart from a draw in the FA Cup at Prideless Park, the other five have been defeats. Forest are both thin on the ground in numbers and are still suffering the effects of a long injury list.

The one bit of good news coming out of the City Ground this week, is that midfielder Guy Moussi may play at least some part in the game. The corresponding fixture on the opening day of the season, saw the Frenchman make his debut and with it a legend was born. It will probably be too much to expect him to find that form straight away, but there’s no denying we’ll be expecting alot from him in the coming weeks. He’ll be just like a new signing, eh.

Steve Coppell in contrast to Davies, has a full squad to pick from and may even take the opportunity to rest a few….lucky bugger. Marek Matejovski, Noel Hunt, Brynjar Gunnarsson and Jay Tabb could all get a run out for the Royals.

Reading, currently sit third place in the Championship table and are two points off an automatic placing. Coppell will want to maintain the pressure on the top two, so don’t expect an easy game in this one. Our fragile defence will have it all to do, in stopping a frontline that includes the likes of Leroy Lita and Kevin Doyle. Doyle has bagged 17 goals already this season, he’ll fancy his chances of adding to it in this one.

On the bright side, it ended 0-0 at the City Ground back in August and we could have won the game, but for some missed chances and some excellent keeping on the day by Marcus Hahnemann. In 23 League meetings between the teams, Forest have won 10, drawn 5 and lost 8. The last time we played them away from home, it ended in a 1-0 victory to Reading. Apologies for the doom and gloom folks, but there’s not much to smile about on Trentside at the moment.

Score prediction: 2-0 to the Royals.