Norwich City are the visitors to the Mad Stad tonight and Nigel Worthington will be hoping his side can pull off a shock result and put the Canaries back on the winning track.
Vital Quotes:
Andy Hughes ? Norwich City:
?Obviously I am looking forward to going back to the Madejski Stadium ? but as far as I am concerned it?s just another game for us, and a very important one too.
?We definitely need to come away with something from this ? and hopefully we will go about our work in the right way and get the result we are looking for. But we know it will be no easy task. Reading have had a phenomenal season so far. They are riding high at the minute.
?They will obviously be confident going into this game, but we will be confident too and we will be looking to go out there and beat them.
?It surprises me that they have lost just one game so far. But it doesn?t surprise me that they have done well because they have got a good squad and a good manager and I always knew they would be there or thereabouts.?
Reading Team News:
There will be changes to the Reading side that faced Birmingham in the FA Cup, one change that cannot be made though is the return of Dave Kitson. He is not yet fully recovered from a hamstring injury but word is he will be available again for the game against Crewe.
There will be major changes to the rest of the side with Marcus Hahnemann, Graeme Murty, Nicky Shorey, Ivar Ingimarsson, Glen Little, Bobby Convey and Kevin Doyle all ready and fit to make their return.
That would mean of course there would be no places for Graham Stack, Chris Makin, Brynjar Gunnarsson, John Oster, Stephen Hunt and Shane Long who scored against Birminham on Saturday.
£250,000 new boy John Halls could be in line for his league debut after making his first appearance against Birmingham with no reaction to his hamstring injury Royals appearance following his £250,000 move from Stoke.
Player to watch: Kevin Doyle
Due a goal
Norwich Team News:
Norwich have quite a few injury problems ahead of this difficult trip to the Mad Stad.and Dean Ashton leaving the club leaves a big hole.
Rossi Jarvis (back) will miss the game after a training ground collision with his brother Ryan. Adam Drury and Jason Shackell have both been recuperating from ankle injuries.
Jim Brennan has joined Southampton while Leon McKenzie (ankle) will not be back until next month.
Youssef Safri has been at the African Cup Of Nations with Morocco, but will not return in time for the game even though his country are out of the competition.
Player to watch: Paul McVeigh
Six goals in his last eight games.
Match Facts & Stats
Reading are still going strong in their storm to the Premiership with 73 point from 30 games, just one defeat all season is making promotion seem more of a when than an if.
The last six home games have produced five wins and a draw scoring 18 goals and conceding just five.
Norwich are not doing as well as they had hoped with 39 points from their 30 games, this points haul puts them in 11th place in the table, eight points behind the play off places.
The Canaries last six away games have seen them win three times, draw two and lose just the once, scoring 9 and conceding 7.
When the two sides met in September at Carrow Road, Reading ran out 1-0 winners thanks to a goal from James Harper
Ref Watch:
Lee Mason
In November Lee Mason was the referee in charge of our 3-0 defeat at the hands of
Arsenal in the Carling Cup.
So far this season Mason has taken charge of 21 games, shown 53 yellow cards and three reds
Match Prediction:
The Royals should win this one comfortably. I?ll go for a 2-0 victory
Next Fixtures:
Championship Crewe vs Reading 04-02-2006
FA Cup Birmingham vs Reading 07-02-2006
It’s almost as if we’ve forgotten what it’s like to be beaten – confidence is such that we feel invincible at the moment.
‘Every time we attack we look like we can score. We just need to keep doing what we’re doing and take it into the West Brom game.’
Norwich City are the visitors to the Mad Stad tonight and Nigel Worthington will be hoping his side can pull off a shock result and put the Canaries back on the winning track.