Reading vs Middlesbrough Predictions

• At least three goals have been scored in eight of Reading’s last 11 home Championship matches.
• At least three goals have been scored in eight of Middlesbrough’s last 12 away league contests.
• Reading have scored multiple goals in four of their last six at home while Boro have conceded two or more in their last three road trips.

Fans can expect more Royal entertainment 

Reading and Middlesbrough could produce a memorable match when two teams with abundant attacking qualities clash at Select Car Leasing Stadium on Saturday. The Royals are a rare beast even by the standards of a topsy-turvy Championship season that hasn’t quite fallen into any discernible order yet – capable of capitulation at Rotherham in one game and obliteration of leaders Blackburn the next.

Paul Ince’s side seem to be blessed with attacking quality, yet they remain susceptible to some of the most basic errors of concentration in defence. Their midweek 3-0 victory over Rovers was a superb reaction to the 4-0 hammering by the Millers and it owed much to an early set-piece goal.

The silky skills, backheels and sizzling long-range efforts that followed would not have come had they not got the opener in more prosaic fashion – a near post header from a Tom Ince corner. And getting the first goal will be the crucial factor in how Saturday’s game goes against a Boro side that were undone in stoppage time at Stoke on Wednesday.

Boro are much better than their points haul suggests

Chris Wilder’s men were unfortunate to concede the first when the referee missed a foul and had chances to bury the Potters before the late twist left them with only a point to show. Boro’s displays this season are of a standard that make them promotion contenders, but they only have three points from four games now and that makes the 23/20 price about them seem unappealing just now.

Instead, backing over 2.5 goals looks the way to go and it’s backed up by the stats that show eight of Reading’s last 11 home games and eight of Boro’s last 12 aways coming in over that mark. Another 2-2 draw could be on the cards for Wilder’s men unless they can stop letting inferior teams back into games that they should already have wrapped up.