QPR v Reading Tip

Two of the bottom three meet on Sunday without a win between them in 17 league outings. Not surprisingly, clean sheets have been at a premium with QPR having kept one all season in the top flight while Reading haven’t had any at all.

The extent of the problem for Brian McDermott was exposed in extraordinary fashion in midweek when the Royals surrendered a 4-0 lead before losing 7-5 to Arsenal. Even though he had made some changes to his starting line-up, high-scoring encounters have become the norm lately for the newly promoted side.

Reading drew 3-3 with Fulham last week, 2-2 with Swansea on 6 October and 2-2 with Newcastle the week before that. Four of their last five outings in all competitions have seen a minimum of four goals; the good news is that they are scoring a fair share of them.

As for QPR I’m still waiting for the likes of Zamora, Hoilett and Cisse to really catch fire. So far they haven’t, which puts me off backing the hosts at best odds of 17/20 (PaddyPower); hardly generous for the bottom team in the league without a triumph all season.

But the odds do tell us that there’s an expectation that the Hoops will get their act together soon. For now, I’d rather back the strikers on both sides to outperform mediocre defences. Therefore I’ll take the 2/1 (Betfred) on there being over 3.5 goals in this crucial match.