Home advantage could prove decisive in Blackburn Rovers - Reading battle

It’s busy days for these teams as both were in action only a few days ago. There’s no rest for the wicked, or in this case; no rest for Blackburn Rovers and Reading.

Blackburn Rovers form and stats

3-2-1 (win-draw-lost) are the Championship numbers at home for Blackburn Rovers so far this season.

In their previous game, the manager T. Mowbray led his Blackburn to a defeat in the Championship match away at Queens Park Rangers. The manager is hoping to put things right immediately here at Ewood Park. Jan Paul van Hecke, defender, was given a rating of 7.25/10 in that game, top of the team. Hecke won 4 of 8 duels.

The spoils were shared after 90 minutes before that, a home game that ended 2-2 versus Coventry City.

The hosts are modest favourites in this match, with the bookmakers estimating the chance of a home win at about 50% +- five percent. It's interesting to look at how Blackburn Rovers have performed under similar circumstances, so here are some numbers: When modest favourites like this (we found 16 games) they have won nine times, drawn four and lost three.

Blackburn can score goals in their home matches. After 6 league matches they have found the net 14 times. Blackburn's goalkeeper has had to pick the ball out of their own net 8 times. For more goal stats, check the Statistics tab above.

Reading form and stats

The hunting on away grounds haven’t been very fruitful for Reading so far with only 6 points returning home. The records show 2-0-4 (win-draw-lose).

The manager V. Paunovic was unhappy after their last game, a Championship match played at their home ground Madejski Stadium. Reading suffered a 2-3 loss to Blackpool (placed 12th). A huge disappointment for Reading in their last match (vs Blackpool). Leading 2-0 the victory seemed almost certain, but a fascinating collapse turned everything around and in the end all was lost in a 2-3 defeat. It is not a good sign for Reading that their goalkeeper Luke Southwood made seven saves in the Blackpool match, but still could not save them from a defeat. Midfield player John Swift was the top player of the team with a match rating of 7.45/10. Swift served one assist, hit three key passes, dribled past the opponent 4 of 4 times and had 43 successful passes (of 51 total).

Prior to that match, a home win 1-0 against Barnsley.

Reading are the outsiders in this one, but not by much. Their performance in similar games (being the away team and moderate outsiders) is five wins, four draws and six defeats. From a total of 15 matches.

Scoring goals is the main ingredient in creating success in football, and not only at home. So far Reading have scored 6 goals in 6 league games away. As for defending, Reading rarely keep clean sheets as they have conceded 11 goals from these away matches.

Head 2 Head

H2H stats regardless of arena (last ten matches): Blackburn three wins, one draw and Reading six victories. As for goals, eight matches ended with three or more goals (over 2,5), two games had two or less.

Top Goalscorers

B. Brereton 10 goals

J. Swift 8 goals

S. Gallagher 4 goals

Blackburn Rovers missing players

Reading missing players