Forest v Reading Match Preview

Reading are the visitors to the City Ground this weekend & will certainly be on a high after knocking Liverpool out of the FA Cup in midweek. Forest's recent home form is exceptional of late with 4 wins & a draw from their last 5 games while Reading have actually been much better on their travels this season with 4 of their five wins this season coming away from the Madejski.

Forest sit in 2nd place at the moment & with Newcastle hosting West Brom on Monday, a win here will ensure either that they pull away from West Brom or close the gap on the leaders. The win over West Brom was a massive result, but no doubt Billy Davies will be making all the squad aware of just how big this game is in front of a home crowd.

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Rob Earnshaw is expected to miss out again with a hamstring injury but after being rested for the FA Cup game, the rest of the squad seems to be pretty much at full strength. Recalls are likely for Blackstock, Majewski, Anderson, Wilson, Gunter, Shorey & McKenna.

With 3 goals (all stunners) & five assists to his name so far in 18 appearances, the Polish International has started making some headlines.

Marek Matejovsky may return after injury, both loan signings Gunnar Thorvaldsson and Andy Griffin should be included after not being registered in time to play in the liverpool game but they will be missing Chris Armstrong (knee), Nicholas Bignall (knee), James Henry (hamstring), Noel Hunt (knee) & Julian Kelly (shoulder).

He only has 1 goal to his name so far but has contributed 7 assists to the Royals cause so far in 16 games. His direct running will certainly create problems for the Forest back line.

These two teams haven't met that often in the past with just 25 league encounter throughout their histories. Forest have won 11 of those, Reading 8 & 7 draws with Forest also scoring 38 of the 67 goals this fixture has produced.

There has been just one goal over the past three meetings between the two.

Darren Deadman (no, that really is his name) of Cambridgeshire will take charge of this game. He last took charge of a Forest game in last seasons 2 - 2 draw with QPR at the City Ground when he let QPR get away with kicking us off the park. Mike George of Norfolk and Darren Handley of Lancashire will be his assistants. Fourth Official Stephen Martin of Staffordshire.

Reading will be on a high after their cup win over Liverpool but the 120 minutes of effort they had to put in may way take it's toll on them. Forest rested quite a few for their cup fixture & that freshness may well make the difference here. Add that to Forest's stunning home form of late and i have to go for a home win. Forest 2 - 1 Reading.

Tuesday, 26 January 19:45
The Football League Championship
Nottm Forest v QPR

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