Reading vs Plymouth Argyle Predictions & Betting Tips, Match Previews

Reading made the perfect start to life under Jaap Stam at the weekend as they saw off Preston to win 1-0 at the Madejski Stadium. It was a good team performance and was capped by a goal by one of the new signings, Jon Swift who impressed for Brentford last season. They’ll be expected to make it two wins out of two against lower league opposition here. The Berkshire side have thrived in the cups in recent seasons but often that has come at the expense of their league form. They’ve made the 3rd Round in the League Cup in each of the last two seasons as well as progressing to FA Cup Quarter and Semi Finals.

Plymouth have a pretty miserable record in this competition and have lost 9 of their last 10 League Cup ties. They also made a terrible start to the new league campaign with a 3-0 home defeat against Luton on the opening day. It was at odds with some encouraging pre-season results and they didn’t lose any of their friendlies coming into the campaign including a friendly against top flight West Brom.

These two clubs will be hoping to mount promotion pushes this season, particularly Plymouth who were left gutted by a play-off final defeat against Wimbledon last term. We are likely to see changes from both sides here but Reading have a squad capable of coping with that and they’ll bring in some of their new signings who will be keen to stake a claim for regular first team football.

Given the way they started on Saturday, you’d have to strongly fancy the Royals to see off League Two opposition on their own ground and they can be backed at slightly longer odds than might be expected given the gulf in class. Backing Reading to Win at 13/20 looks the way to go in this one.