Newcastle v Reading: King Kev Starting to Call the Toon at St James’?
Kevin Keegan’s second coming on Tyneside has finally started to click into gear after back to back wins over Fulham and Spurs. The doom and gloom surrounding St James’ has lifted and the Toon’s wide-eyed belief in the man they dubbed ‘Special K’ has returned in full force. The widespread relief that King Kev’s winless run has ended has now been replaced with expectation as Newcastle attempt to record their third win in a row. This weekend, Premier 10 players need to judge whether the newly-found Toon confidence will be enough to dispose of an ever improving Reading side.
The Boys are Back in Toon!
Newcastle’s impressive rout of motivation-less Tottenham last weekend was arguably the biggest shock result on the Premier 10 fixture list. This performance should reignite the Magpies hopes for their last 6 games of the season as confidence will be high, particularly amongst the trio of international striker’s who’ve all scored in recent weeks. Michael Owen is in fine goal scoring form after netting in the last three matches as well as scoring 5 goals in the last 8 appearances. The much needed wins over Fulham and Tottenham also provided the opportunity for both Mark Viduka and Obafemi Martins to score their first Toon goals of 2008. Both players have hardly played this year but they ended goal droughts of 8 and 9 matches respectively. Therefore expect all 3 to be a handful for a Royals defence who’ve conceded more away goals than any other Premier League side barring the relegated, rock bottom Rams.
Royals Visits aren’t Impressive
Reading’s recent revival has seen them pick up 10 points from a possible 15 available as well as keep 3 clean-sheets in their last 5 matches. This dramatic turnaround in form has seen the Royals move out of the bottom 3 and to build a six point gap between themselves and 18th placed Bolton. However, their away form is hardly impressive as they’ve only picked up 1 win on the road this season and have conceded goals for fun away from the Madejski. Steve Coppell’s side conceded 7 at Portsmouth, 6 at Tottenham, 4 at Blackburn as well as 3 at Bolton, Villa and Fulham. On a positive note the Royals have scored a few goals on their travels too, in fact they’ve scored more away goals than 4th placed Liverpool so expect them to pose a few problems for the Magpies defence.
Reading won the last 2 Premier League encounters between these clubs but both were by a single goal margin at the Madejski. The only top flight meeting of these sides at St James’ ended in a 3-2 win for Newcastle and I would expect a repeat performance this time out. Therefore back a Premier 10 home win for the Toon as King Kev wins his 3rd game in a row to leave the Geordie hordes believing in miracles again.
Pundit’s Pick: King Kev completes hat-trick of wins (home win) Do you agree with this result for your Premier 10 prediction? Play Now>>
Tags: Magpies, Newcastle United, Premier 10 preview, Premier League, Reading, ROyals, Toon
