West Ham vs Reading Betting Pick | Eng. Championship

Eng. Championship

2012-03-31 - West Ham vs Reading

A Sports Betting Pick by Auls

West Ham v Reading
Football: English Championship
Saturday 31 March 2012 - Kick Off 3pm

West Ham

Sam Allardyce has been embroiled in a war of words... Not with a rival manager, but instead with the supporters of the club who were vocalising their disgust at the performances of the team in recent games. Allardyce says the fans just don't like winning, while they say the team is not playing the West Ham way.

The club needs to get together though as they face a huge game in terms of their goal to reach automatic promotion back to the Premier League. West Ham are 3rd in the Championship, trailing their opponents by one place and one point. They are 9-7-3 at Upton Park this season, scoring 28 goals and conceding 18 in those games.

The Hammers are unbeaten in their last 11 League games, although they would have been glad to have beaten Peterborough during the week to stop a run of 5 consecutive draws. West Ham have drawn 5 games in a row at Upton Park, results that have seen them slip down the table, although they had won 5 of their previous 6 home games before that.

Danny Collins is likely to come into the side to deputise for the injured Abdoulaye Faye. They are set to name the same side, outside of that change, to the one that beat Peterborough on Tuesday night.

Reading

Reading are one of the in-form teams in the Championship and they have pushed themselves into contention for an automatic promotion spot in the Championship. However, all of their good work could be undone if they start dropping points now with 7 games left to play, starting with the big one at Upton Park.

The team are 2nd in the Championship, 5 points behind the leaders Southampton and only one point clear of West Ham just outside of the automatic promotion berths. Reading have a 10-3-6 record away from home this season, scoring 25 goals and conceding 18, and only West Ham have won more away games so far this season.

Reading have picked up 31 points from the last 36 available in the Championship to propel them up the table. They had won 5 of their last 6 games in the League before a 3-1 loss at Peterborough around ten days ago. The Royals have only won 1 of their last 3 away games in the League.

Jason Roberts will need to pass a late fitness test to determine his availability for this game.

Head to Head

Reading won a bad-tempered game between the two teams 3-0 at the Majedski Stadium earlier this season.

This will be the first meeting between the teams at Upton Park since the 2007/08 season when they drew 1-1 as both were Premier League teams.

West Ham have not won either of their last 2 home games against Reading.

Prediction

This should be a fascinating game between two sides that will want the three points here to put themselves in a strong position for an automatic promotion spot to the Premier League.

West Ham will look to push forward as the onus is on them to attack here, but Reading are not going to sit deep and hope for a point in this one. They have shown their ability to turn over West Ham already this season and I think they will be confident in grabbing the three points from this game.

I expect there will be a lot of pressure on West Ham as the fans will be quick to get on their backs if they are not performing in the manner the fans will be demanding.

I think there will be goals in this game as Reading have scored in 7 of their last 8 away games, while West Ham have managed to find the scoresheet in 10 of their last 11 home games. Both will be pushing forward in search of the goals that will give them the three points in this game and I think the odds look a little too tempting to ignore.