Blackburn Rovers vs Reading. Sky Bet Championship.
Ewood ParkAttendance11,818.
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Wednesday 22 August 2018 20:46, UK
Blackburn boss Tony Mowbray is confident midfielder Bradley Dack will be available for Wednesday night's Ewood Park clash with Reading.
Dack scored the only goal in Rovers' win at Hull on Saturday but sustained a foot injury which means he faces a late fitness test.
Defender Derrick Williams is once again ruled out as he struggles to recover from a foot injury he sustained in training. Amari'i Bell is set to continue at left-back for Mowbray, who hopes to have no further injury issues for the game.
Reading boss Paul Clement is feeling the pressure after the Royals continued their pointless start to the season in Saturday's defeat to Bolton. But Clement has pulled off something of a coup in the transfer market by bringing in highly-rated Southampton younger Josh Sims on a season-long loan.
Sims is expected to play a significant part at Ewood Park while Clement could be further boosted by the respective returns of Sone Aluko and Mo Barrow. Barrow has made good progress since picking up a hamstring injury in the Carabao Cup clash with Birmingham, while Aluko has also struggled this month.
Blackburn have only lost one of their nine home league meetings with Reading (W4 D4), though it came in their last such meeting in December 2016.
Reading have won three of their last four league matches against Blackburn (L1), completing a league double over them in 2016-17.
Tony Mowbray has never beaten Reading in five previous managerial encounters (D1 L4), all in the second tier.
Reading have lost each of their last three games in the Championship, while they haven't lost four in a row in the competition since April 2016.
Blackburn are unbeaten in their last eight games in the Championship (W4 D4), including each of their opening three of the current campaign (W1 D2).
Reading have scored just one goal in their last six league games, with that only goal being the opener against Derby in the first game of the season, which they ultimately lost 1-2.
We seem to see teams have a really good start or really struggle in this division and, having lost against Bolton, the Royals fall into that latter category. Bradley Dack was injured at the weekend for the hosts and that'll be a big blow to Tony Mowbray's plans, though I'm not too sure how long he'll be out of action. I can't see Reading taking their first league win just yet, though.
Prutton predicts: 2-1 (15/2 with Sky Bet)
