Royals Visit The Lane

On Sky

Steve Coppell could make changes to his starting eleven following Reading`s draw with Portsmouth a fortnight ago.

The most vulnerable positions is Michael Duberry`s at centre back. The experienced transfer window signing could make way for Andre Bikey, although Duberry may have the edge being part of the clean sheet defence from the last game and with his wealth of knowledge.

Meanwhile Dave Kitson or Leroy Lita could find that they make way for Kevin Doyle. Doyle scored the goal that was the difference between the Republic Of Ireland and Slovakia on Wednesday night. The former two strikers could not find the net against Pompey and their lack of goals may mean Coppell sees fit to change things in attack.

The Royals are without Graeme Murty through a calf strain, and Greg Halford is expected to come in. There are no other new injury concerns. Meanwhile there is an outside chance that John Oster could start on either flank with the Reading wingers looking stale and nonchalant in recent performances.

Brynjar Gunnarsson, Ulises de la Cruz, Shane Long and Seol Ki Hyeon have all returned from international duty unscathed and will be hoping to push for a spot in the squad.

eading will of course be without Bobby Convey and Ibrahima Sonko who have been ruled out till the end of the season.

Spurs will not be taking Reading lightly a second time round after being defeated 3-1 by the Royals after a 1nil lead at the Madejski Stadium earlier this season.

But Reading will have to be optimistic seeing as Chelsea are the only team to win at White Hart Lane since mid-February.

Dimitar Berbatov will almost certainly start being a hell-of-a-handful in recent appearances. That leaves Martin Jol with the choice of Robbie Keane, Jermaine Defoe and the possibility of Mido who missed international duty due to injury

Stalteri and Hossam Ghali noth represented their respective countries, with Stalteri bagging two goals, the two look a likely option to take centre field for Spurs on Sunday.

Aaron Lennon and Paul Robinson started 2 out of 2 for England but Jol will more then likely pick his two England internationals on Sunday.

Ledley King is still ruled out as the lynchpin of the Spurs defence so expect Ricardo Rocha and Michael Dawson to be holding the line for Tottenham at the back.

Vital Quotes: Martin Jol

‘Reading have been one of the best promoted teams from over the last five or six years taking everything into consideration.

I thought last season you could see the difference with them playing so well in the Championship and winning almost all the games.

‘The Championship is probably the most difficult league to dominate.’

Tottenham Hotspur Team News:

Tottenham (from): Robinson, Cerny, Alnwick, Chimbonda, Stalteri, Lee, Dawson, Rocha, Huddlestone, Zokora, Jenas, Lennon, Malbranque, Taarabt, Keane, Berbatov, Mido, Defoe.

Player to watch: Dimitar Berbatov

The Bulgarian striker has been an absolute revelation for the White Hart Lane club, and has really come into form over the past few months. Despite lacking real pace, he has every attribute of a top forward, and will cause better defences than Reading a lot of problems.

Reading Team News:

Reading (from): Hahnemann, Halford, Ingimarsson, Bikey, Duberry, Shorey, Little, Sidwell, Harper, Hunt, Lita, Kitson, Doyle, Long, Federici, De la Cruz, Gunnarsson, Oster.

Player to watch: Greg Halford

With Graeme Murty set to miss the trip to North London, January signing Greg Halford is set to make his first start following his late introduction against Portsmouth two weeks prior.

Ref Watch:

Alan Wiley (Staffordshire) last refereed Reading in the 2-2 draw at Chelsea on Boxing Day, and prior to that was also in charge for our 1-0 victory at home to Bolton Wanderers back in December.

Wiley has only issued three red cards this season. Two of them were issued to Blackburn players Lucas Neill and Andy Todd in their 3-0 defeat at Portsmouth in August and the other went to El Hadji Diouf in Bolton’s 5-1 loss at Middlesbrough in January.

Match Prediction:

Two teams who like to attack will come face-to-face in this Sunday’s fixture, and any neutral will be hoping for a goal-fest. I’d like to see us come away from the game with something to show for our efforts, but Spurs have really come into their own as of late, and I think they’ll offer too much going forward. A 2-1 loss unfortunately.