Royals After Saintly Win

The games keep coming thick and fast and it should be a case of all change again as Reading prepare to take on Southampton on Friday night looking for another maximum points return.

Vital Quotes:

Steve Coppell: IC Berkshire

‘It’s a tough week ahead but we will only look at it one game at a time.

?That’s our mentality all season. That’s how we go about it and that’s what has got us into this position.

‘It’s mostly been effective and we see no reason to change that. Our only focus now is Southampton.

‘It’s amazing the effect of dropping out of the Premiership can have.

‘There’s been a big turnover of staff and they’ve had to let some very, very good players go.

‘But George Burley is a manager who can create teams and build for the future and he’s brought in a few quality loan signings which will help them.

‘For many years people have complimented Southampton on their youth system and now it looks as though they can really test it out.

‘With that inevitably comes inconsistency and I’m sure they’re probably looking more towards next season than this one.

‘But that doesn’t mean we’re going to get things our own way. They have players capable of pushing us back and it’s down to us to impose our game on them.’

Reading Team News:

Everything looks set to return to league team mode after the FA Cup game. Reading manager Steve Coppell is waiting on the news from Ibrahima Sonko after he picked up a knee injury in the game against Birmingham on Tuesday, the signs look good, but Brynjar Gunnarsson at the ready just in case.

Leroy Lita and Kevin Doyle are the most likely candidates to start the game up front with Dave Kitson on the bench ready to play some part in the game.

Player to watch: Steve Sidwell

Has the goalscoring bug again after netting in Reading?s last two league games.

Southampton Team News:

It could be that Saints start with all three of their new loan signings on the field, Grzegorz Rasiak, Richard Chaplow and Jermaine Wright are all available and raring to start.

George Burley will however be without David Prutton and Michael Svensson who are both out with long term injuries; Marian Pahars is suffering from an illness.

Player to watch: Grzegorz Rasiak

The Polish international has scored 19 goals at Derby but after featuring in eight games for Tottenham without a goal, he?ll be keen to get back amongst the scorers and repay George Burley?s faith in him.

Match Facts & Stats

When the two sides met in September at St Mary?s the score was 0-0 but the Saints have a lot of changes since then.

At home Reading are unbeaten in their last six, five of them have been wins with one draw. Scoring for this period has been 17 for with just four goals against.

In Southampton?s last six away games they have won just once and lost five times. They have scored four goals and conceded 11.

Reading have 79 points from their 32 games played and sit at the top of the table. Southampton are struggling somewhat with 36 points from 32 games, they occupy 17th place.

Ref Watch:

Andy D?Urso ? Essex

So far D?Urso has been in charge of 23 games, he has in that time shown 85 yellow cards and 8 red.

This is the first time he has taken charge of a Reading or Southampton game this season.

Match Prediction:

Home win. Surely the Saints cant turn their away form around that much?

Next Fixtures:

League Championship Sheff Utd vs Reading 14-02-2006
League Championship Luton vs Reading 17-02-2006