With Birmingham, nothing is ever easy, whether it be on the field or off. The team just dealt with another botched takeover attempt.
A prolonged push for the playoffs and organisational clarity once seemed feasible, but John Eustace’s team is now trailing after three straight defeats.
Blues are currently five points outside of the top six after losing to Sunderland at home and drawing with Swansea City and Blackpool, the latter of which ended in a scoreless draw last weekend.
Birmingham was unable to capitalise against hosts who had dropped their previous four games prior to the World Cup break, despite the fact that it was another point and clean sheet on the road.
As well as being five points behind the playoff spots, the West Midlands outfit are the same amount above the relegation zone, and there is a need to get back to winning ways sooner rather than later.
Reading recently demonstrated that it is possible to recover from a slump by securing consecutive victories on either side of the rest in competitive play.
The Royals recently defeated a revitalised Coventry City 1-0, with Amadou Salif Mbengue scoring the game’s lone goal for his first of the year.
Paul Ince’s team now has 10 victories from 22 games, which is equal to their 10 losses, but because they are only four points out of third place, their inconsistency is meaningless.
Of course, Ince would love to regularly gain points, but this Reading team’s unpredictable play may be helping them in their quest to continue being one of the division’s biggest surprises.
1×2 Betting Odds
While the race for the playoffs remains as close as ever, both clubs know that they could drop off the pace with a defeat on Friday. With that in mind, do not be surprised if this game ends in a stalemate!
As caution might be the day of the word for both these sides!
The home side are still the favourites though, with odds @ 2.17.
Reading might fancy something here, but their odds @ 3.90, declare them as the underdogs!
The chances that the match ends in a stalemate stands @ 3.32.
Total goals over/under
The odds that the total number of goals score will be over 2.5, stands @ 2.41.
While the odds that the total number of goals will be under 2.5, stands @ 1.64.
