Reading FC Bookie Watch: Blackburn (A)

Back-to-back away defeats is far from ideal but after tricky trips to Fulham and Leeds, Saturday should be a tad bit easier against inconsistent Blackburn. That's my view anyway but what do the bookmakers think?

All odds are best available and taken from Oddschecker.com on Thursday.

Match Result

The bookies are having a tricky time figuring out a result here. A tenner on each result would net £17 for a Blackburn win, £24 on the draw and £18.75 for Reading to win, so not much to separate any of them. However, any home win that's going to earn you nearly double your stake is a very tempting offer and likewise, given Reading's scratchy form on the road I'm not overly confident when being offered less than 2/1 odds.

First Goalscorer

Few surprises in the FGS list, where bookmakers are still offering a rather generous 9/1 on Garath McCleary to be Reading's opening scorer. I wonder whether Dom Samuel has run out of chances following another lacklustre outing at Leeds so maybe this is the day the Yak is unleashed and if so, 12/1 is tasty for a striker who's looked handy in limited action.

Blackburn's Sam Gallagher and Danny Graham are the overall favourites to score first at 11/2 and 6/1 respectively, while our old chums Danny Guthrie and Hope Akpan are both 20/1 to hit the first goal against their former club.

Championship Betting

If you got swept up in promotion fever a couple of weeks ago and lumped some money on, well you might be kicking yourself. Back then our odds were as low as 3/1 to go up but today that price has drifted all the way out to 9/1. Personally that's a price I'm much, much happier to get involved with and while I'm not sure we're going to do it, the rumoured new ownership and flakey nature of the Championship suddenly make a sneaky £10 bet look a wise investment.

Newcastle are already 1/20 to go up and 1/3 to win the division, despite having more than half the season left to play. Brighton are 3/10 to join them, with Norwich, Derby, Sheffield Wednesday, Aston Villa, Leeds and Fulham all shorter prices than Reading despite sitting below us in the table.

Our relegation odds are 250/1 if you fear a collapse on the scale of Millwall in 1995 when they went from 34 points after 18 games, to end up relegated on 52.

That's your lot for this week, as always please gamble responsibly. #gambleaware