Ipswich vs Reading Betting Tips

10 points separate the sides with Ipswich 7 places better off than Reading but the Tractor Boys still have plenty of work to do if they are to repeat last season when they made the play-offs. Ipswich have lost their last two matches going down 3-0 at fellow top six hopefuls Birmingham just a few days after exiting the FA Cup at League 2 Portsmouth.

They did name a much weakened side in that game though and have had 10 days to prepare for this fixture as a result. Their home form has been reasonable of late and they are unbeaten in 4 matches at Portman Road although have conceded in all of them.

Reading are starting to find their feet again under returning boss Brian McDermott. They were 4-0 winners at the weekend in the FA Cup at home to Walsall to set up a winnable 5th Round home tie against West Brom or Peterborough. The challenge will be not to allow their cup run to detract from their league form which certainly happened last season and the Royals have only won 1 of their last 6 in the Championship.

This should be a fairly open contest as both teams will be looking for the win. Reading really have to put a winning run together if they are to have any chance of fighting their way back in to play-off contention so that should mean there are a few goals here.

The Royals have only failed to score in 1 of their last 8 matches and have Matej Vydra in red-hot goalscoring form. There have also been 3 or more goals in 4 of the last 5 games involving Ipswich so consider backing there to be over 2.5 goals here at 6/5.

Matches at Portman Road often end up all square and that has been the case in 7 of the last 12 games at the East Anglian ground. Ipswich’s failure to kill teams off and concede sloppy goals is a problem so consider backing a 2-2 draw here at 14/1.