Town boss Mick McCarthy expects today’s opponents Reading to be in the play-off shake-up come the end of the season. The Royals moved into sixth place in the Championship following a 1-0 win at Watford and 7-1 home thrashing of Bolton Wanderers.
McCarthy, whose side have dropped to 10th after two successive Championship defeats, says he’s not sure why the Berkshire club, relegated from the Premier League last season, hadn’t been further up the table earlier in the season: "I fancied them at the start of the season. I think there’s been another takeover or something mooted, I don’t think that helps.
"I know Nigel Adkins has had injuries, but I still think he’s got a good squad of players. They seem to be on the move, going in the right direction at the right time of the year.
"I still expect them to be in the shake-up for the top six. But it doesn’t always work. Wigan aren’t there, although I know they had the Europa League.
"QPR have been there and yet haven’t really ripped it up, it’s been 1-0 wins based on a really solid defence a lot of it.
"It’s not easy, just because they’ve come down and they’ve got a good squad doesn't mean it’ll just happen. But I think on the basis of the last two wins, I think they’ll probably see themselves going in the right direction.”
Reading have recently adopted a 4-4-2 formation and the Blues are likely to opt for a similar system today, having been playing 4-3-3 for much of the last couple of months.
McCarthy likes having the flexibility to use different systems as required: "[4-3-3] worked. That started with Huddersfield, we stopped them playing how they wanted to play, it worked.
"I think, certainly when it’s been Frank, Murph and Dids, that three up front has worked particularly well. But we’ve got the players to play 4-4-2 because we’ve got four good wingers.”