Norwich City Vs Reading Match Preview


By Mark Sugar
September 23 2005

The Royals make the long journey to Norfolk tomorrow as they face Nigel Worthington's Norwich City in the 1st of a very tricky spell for Steve Coppell and his side.They face a former Royal Andy Hughes,who has since become the captain of Norwich. New Page 1 MADEJSKI STADIUM

MATCH PREVIEW

Norwich City
Vs
Reading

Saturday 24th September 2005

Carrow Road, Norwich

Kick Off 15:00pm

TEAM NEWS

Reading Manager Steve Coppell will once again ring the changes for the long trip to Carrow Road, despite a 1:0 victory over Luton Town in the 2nd Round of the Carling Cup.

Back into the team will be Glen Little, Bobby Convey, Brynjar Gunnarsson and Leroy Lita who will all replace John Oster, Stephen Hunt, Sekou Baradji and Eric Obinha. The 4 players were rested, but none of there replacements did anything significantly worth mentioning in that dire 1:0 win to suggest they may start the game.

Graham Stack isn't expected to be involved in the final 16 man squad because of his on-going court case, which will again mean a place for Adam Federici on the subs bench.

The trio of Dave Kitson, Steve Sidwell and Nicky Shorey all miss out. Only Kitson himself has a slight chance of featuring against Southampton next Wednesday night.

For Norwich, they've had an indifferent start to the season but confidence is high after last Sunday's controversial 1:0 win at local rivals Ipswich Town.

They'll definitely be without Peter Thorne and 1 time Reading target Leon McKenzie with respective knee and ankle injuries.

Other players expected to miss out are Simon Charlton and Mathieu Louis-Jean despite returning to training earlier this week.

Canaries boss Nigel Worthington will make changes however from Tuesday night's 2:0 Carling Cup win over Northampton.

On-loan Spurs defender Callum Davenport will go back into the defence to partner Gary Doherty.

Former PSV full back Jurgen Colen will replace Craig Fleming at right back.

Darren Huckerby looks set to be the man who partner's Dean Ashton up front.

Former Reading midfielder and now Norwich City captain Andy Hughes will start the game alongside either Youssef Safri or Paul McVeigh.  

Norwich City Hotshot - Dean Ashton

FORM GUIDE
Life couldn't be much better for Reading at the moment as they are still unbeaten since the opening day defeat to Plymouth Argyle. Last Saturday, Steve Coppell's side picked up a 1:0 win over Crewe Alexandra at the Madejski Stadium thanks to an 80th minute Ivar Ingimarsson header. 

As said earlier, Norwich will have hoped for a better start to the league which see's them lie in 17th place having taken 9 points from the first 9 games. Confidence will be high after a win against local rivals Ipswich Town last Sunday.

PREVIOUS MEETINGS
The previous meeting between the 2 sides saw a controversial goal decide the match, after the ball hit referee Paul Durkin in the back, which fell perfectly to Phil Mulryne who produced a wonderful finish to beat the helpless Jamie Ashdown in the Reading goal. 

Reading 0:1 Norwich - 12/04/004

Norwich 2:1 Reading - 30/09/03

Norwich 0:1 Reading - 05/03/03

Reading 0:2 Norwich - 08/09/02

BETTING ODDS (courtesy of Coral Bookmakers)
Norwich to Win - 5/4

Draw - 11/5

Reading to Win - 7/4

TICKET INFORMATION
For all the ticket details and prices regarding this fixture Click Here.

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