The Cherries don't want to see a 20-year unbeaten run against Reading slip

If the first game between Reading and Bournemouth at the start of the season held some tension, then this latest encounter has watched that up about 10-fold. While Reading were the Championship's runaway leaders early on in the season, they were caught and have been trying to re-establish themselves in the play-off places, while Bournemouth have slipped below them again. This game could catapult one of these teams into contention for an automatic promotion place, but the loser may well see a very difficult second half of the season.

The Cherries know this next game against Reading could 

see them put themselves back in contention for a high finish.

Reading are in relatively good form having won two of their last three games and having not lost in five if the FA Cup defeat to Luton is excluded. They have two more wins than Bournemouth and have Lucas João still banging in the goals - he's up to 14 now (17 in all competitions). He should have one more but missed a penalty in the Royals' last game against Preston North End. Michael Olise is also a winger who has several Premier League clubs looking on admiringly - including the likes of Man City, Liverpool, Spurs and Chelsea. Where Reading have wilted a bit is in their defence having succumbed to 28 goals against in their 25 games.

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All indicators are that this will be another high scoring game like the 4-2 result for Bournemouth earlier in the season. Clean sheets look rather unlikely. Reading haven't beaten the Cherries since winning 2-0 in March 2000. To keep that record going Bournemouth need to find something that has been missing for the last five or more league matches and that's plenty of shots on target. Keeping Jack Wilshere into the starting 11 may be one easy pick, but Tindall has to fathom a way for Bournemouth to be better in possession and prevent the number of shots that Begovic is being made to save currently.

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Winning the game would put Bournemouth back on track, but defeat now really will see them start to fall away from the top six if they are not careful. 

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