Reading v Newcastle United – match preview.
Posted on April 12th, 2010 | 93 Comments |
The home side have been in fine form of late having only lost twice in 15 games and are looking at maintaining a late charge for the play-off places themselves. A win would set them up nicely for the final few games of the season which are all against struggling opposition in the shape of Peterborough, Preston, Scunthorpe and Watford. Newcastle are themselves unbeaten in 13 matches and have their own eyes on the prize of the league title and are under instruction by manager Chris Hughton to wrap it up at the earliest possible opportunity.
Reading will be without defender Matt Mills as their captain will be serving part of his 4 game ban after his appeal over his red card at Ipswich was deemed frivalous which resulted in an extension to his original suspension. In their last match, Reading managed a 0-0 draw away at Cardiff and will feel aggrieved at not having taken all 3 points after Simon Church struck the woodwork late in the game. They lined up for that match with a team of;
Reading: Federici, Bertrand, Pearce, Griffin, Khizanishvili, Tabb, McAnuff, Kebe, Sigurdsson, Howard, Long.
You may have noted the familar name of Zurab Khizanishvilli in the Reading line-up. On his return to Blackburn after his loan spell with Newcastle earlier in the season he was promptly sent packing down south for another loan spell at Reading where he has now made 12 appearances for the club.
Newcastle head into the game having wrapped up promotion and beaten play-off hopeful’s Blackpool 4-1 at the weekend. Tamas Kadar injured his thigh in that game and will miss out whilst Jose Enrique will be tested late on to see if he has recovered enough from a virus to be able to play. Steven Tayor and Fitz Hall still remain sidelined so that should hopefully leave the team looking like;
Newcastle Utd: Harper, Simpson, Williamson, Coloccini, Enrique, Routledge, Nolan, Guthrie, Gutierrez, Carroll, Lovenkrands.
Should Chris Hughton decide to shuffle the pack to give some players a rest after only a 2 day break then I expect Joey Barton, Shola Ameobi, Leon Best and Alan Smith to feature in the starting line-up instead.
Amazingly, Newcastle United have never won at Reading with our best result at their old ground, Elm Park, a 3-3 draw in an FA cup tie in 1990. Admittedly there have only been four meetings between the sides at Reading but that shouldn’t disguise the disappointment of our last two results in Berkshire, 2-1 and 1-0 defeats as our over paid stars let the club down with abject performances on both occasions.
As has been pointed out, both teams are in fine form and it should make for an interesting game. Newcastle have been the best team in the league this season although Reading are making up ground fast as they recover from a poor start to the season, and they managed an outstanding FA cup run where they beat the likes of Liverpool. A tough game to call and lets just say that I would settle for a point right now.
My Prediction: 1-1
Howay the lads!
Date: Tuesday, 13th April, 2010.
Time: 8:00pm.
Venue: Madejski Stadium.
NUFCBlog Author: toonsy
toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.
I’d take 1-1 for this one. Fine side in fine form