Ipswich v Reading Betting Tips: Royals to continue on the up

This Championship match sees two teams heading in opposite directions take each other on as Ipswich play host to Reading at Portman Road.

Ipswich are certainly on a slippery slope right now and are without a win in four matches in all competitions, losing three of those. It all started with that embarrassing FA Cup defeat against non-league Lincoln City and since then they’ve spiralled down to 17th in the league and just 10 points ahead of the drop-zone. With 51 points still to play for, safety is nowhere near guaranteed.

Mick McCarthy is under increasing pressure from Ipswich fans as he looks to find a solution to his side’s problems at both ends of the pitch. In what is very unlike a McCarthy team, Town are shipping goals at the moment and are without a clean sheet in the league since 26th November. The striking department has also been pretty woeful as the Tractor Boys failed to replace talismanic striker Daryl Murphy in the summer after his move to Championship title contenders Newcastle United. On-loan midfielder Tom Lawrence is the only shining light in the entire Ipswich squad at the moment.

This will be Ipswich’s first game at Portman Road since the turn of the year and they will hope to improve on the 3-0 defeat the suffered at the hands of Derby County on New Year’s Eve. However, home form before that loss was actually pretty good with no losses in their previous three matches, winning two of them. Furthermore, McCarthy’s side have the 11th best home record in the division with 23 points taken from 15 games.

Reading made it three wins on the bounce on Tuesday night by overcoming out-of-form Birmingham City by a 1-0 scoreline. The Royals were not exceptional but managed to pull a result out of the bag, so vital for teams at the top of the table and looking for promotion. Jaap Stam’s side are now third in the Championship and just four points away from the automatic promotion spots. If they keep this good form up then they could challenge Brighton and Newcastle yet.

What made Reading’s win all the more sweet was the fact they kept a clean sheet which means they have now conceded just one goal in their last three league matches. This is particularly good when you see their pretty woeful defensive record over the course of the campaign so far which has seen them let in 37 goals in just 29 games – the worst of any side in the top seven.

The Royals played without a striker against Birmingham but still showed they carry a threat going forward, as they have done all season, and it will be interesting to see how they line up against Ipswich on Saturday.

Prior to Reading’s match against Birmingham, people on social media remarked that the odds of 19/10 on a Reading win was a “license to print money”. Quite frankly, this looks to be the case again here. 19/10 really does underestimate the visitors and it’s a price that is worth snapping up.

Ipswich fans are among the most disgruntled supporters in the Championship at the moment, and with good reason, as their team continues to slide down the table. The chance to almost double your stake on an away win here is an opportunity not to be missed.

See more Championship tips here.