Birmingham City v Reading Betting Tips: Blues to keep up good defensive record at St Andrews

17:20, 25 aug 2017
17:20, 25 aug 2017
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Like most other teams in the Championship, these two are aiming for the top six this season. However, in reality, they are both likely to face an uphill battle for those playoff spots.

After recording a couple of back-to-back victories, Birmingham have stumbled in their last few matches with a draw and two losses in their last three in all competitions.

Manager Harry Redknapp has been looking for both defenders and attackers in this transfer window and it is easy to see why as his side have kept just one clean sheet so far whilst they have also scored just two goals in their last three matches. Striker Sam Gallagher has arrived from Southampton this week to add to the exciting signing of Luton Town forward Isaac Vassell a couple of weeks ago. However, they are still missing a creative midfielder. Arsenal full back Carl Jenkinson has been loaned in to shore up the defence.

Although they lost their last home match – a League Cup tie against AFC Bournemouth – it is certainly worth noting that Harry Redknapp is yet to lose a home match as Birmingham City manager – taking seven points from a possible nine. Furthermore, they have conceded just the one goal in those three games during his tenure.

Despite the fact they narrowly missed out on promotion last year, given other teams’ lavish spending, Reading are not considered one of the favourites for promotion this time around. They have had an inconsistent start to this campaign with their opening four league matches reading L,D,W,L. Going into this match, it is certainly worth mentioning that they played 120 minutes on Tuesday night as they needed extra time to overcome Millwall in the League Cup. Could there be tired legs on Saturday?

The Royals were known for their attacking style of play last season and managed to find the back of the net 68 times in 46 matches. However, they were terrible at the back and their Goals Against record of 64 was the worst in the top seven. Unfortunately for them, it seems that the poor backline has not learnt anything in time for this campaign and they have kept just one clean sheet in all competitions so far.

Jaap Stam’s men have been poor on their travels so far with two losses and no goals scored.

Although Birmingham have had a bad time of late, I think the new signings will give them a bit of fresh impetus here whilst they also have a good home defensive record under Redknapp. Having said that, I am still not sure they have the attacking flair to score too many against Reading. With this in mind, the relatively result-neutral bet of Birmingham City to Keep a Clean Sheet at 17/10 seems like good value.

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