Reading vs Bristol City prediction: ENGLAND: Championship betting tips on match 2022-10-21 14:00.
It was at a similar period of last season that Reading’s Championship campaign imploded, leading to a flirtation with the relegation zone for the remainder of the campaign. They would go on to lose 20 of their final 34 games of the Championship season (W7, D7), costing Veljko Paunović his job along the way. His successor, Paul Ince, is facing the toughest test of his 30-game tenure after Reading slumped to a third consecutive defeat (2-3 at Swansea) to slip into a mid-table position.
Having been sacked mid-season in three of his four previous stints as a manager, Ince knows the pressure all too well. After their most recent loss, he expressed his frustrations with defensive mistakes that led to defeats in two of the last three rounds, but did praise the efforts of a squad he himself admits is limited in depth: “They are playing well, the performance was good but every time we make an error, we're getting punished.”
Nigel Pearson’s Bristol City appear to have overcome their poor recent form and are on an opposite trajectory, now in a position to leapfrog Reading with what would be a third consecutive H2H win if successful. Given that six of their last nine Championship matches have seen both teams score on the day, and seven of those nine cleared 3+ total goals, perhaps even a repeat of their 3-2 win at Reading last season cannot be discounted.
Ticking off their first away clean sheet of the Championship season in a fine win at West Brom on Tuesday was also a sign of further progress, and that was described by Pearson as “the performance we were looking for” in the face of mounting criticism of a defensive unit that had conceded 2+ goals nine times – still an equal-high for all Championship clubs going into the midweek round.
Players to watch: New Reading arrival, and son of the manager, Tom Ince has amassed eight goals against Bristol City, his equal-highest against a single opposition. Despite that, he failed to find the net in his last four starts against them. Meanwhile, Nahki Wells has now found the back of the net in four separate Championship victories for Bristol City this season.
Hot stat: All but one of Bristol City’s seven losses this Championship season have been by a one-goal margin.