Boss Roy Keane says he is looking for an improved first half display when Town take on Reading at the Madejski Stadium this evening (KO 8pm). The Blues still haven’t scored in a first half in the league this season and were well below par in the opening period at Scunthorpe on Saturday.

Keane admits that he and his staff are looking at their pre-match warm-up and other aspects of their routine: “We’ll look at everything, our preparation, our travelling.

“But you can over-analyse it as well. The game is 90 minutes long. Sometimes teams start well and fade away, we just seem to be doing the opposite at the moment.”

The Town boss says his squad have to look at their individual approaches to matches: “Ultimately it’s up to each player to be prepared properly. It’s not always up to the manager and the staff to try and get the players ready.

“I remember when I was a player I used to get myself ready. I didn’t like people talking too much or too much music, I just wanted to get on with the job and be ready. Every player will have his own way of getting ready and the players will have to look at their own performances.

“But it’s no crisis. If we keep getting results as we have been doing, even without starting games brightly, it’s not the end of the world.”

Overall, the Town manager, who says he spotted that all wasn’t well with his side after 20 seconds at Scunthorpe, is pleased with how his players have performed up to now: “We’ve had a tough start to the season. We’ve had 11 games with seven away from home and the players have been great

“I was disappointed with the performance in the first half the other day but not with the players in terms of their attitude and the way they’ve been since pre-season.

“If anything they deserve great credit. Three of four players from our youth team last year all got involved on Saturday. Don’t think we’re jumping on the players’ backs, I think they’re doing great. But the performance on Saturday in the first half wasn’t good enough and I think anyone would have seen that.”

The Blues boss says his team aren’t too far from being able to grind out results even when they aren’t at their best: “We’re nearly there. We’re nearly getting that side to us where we’re not playing well and we’re winning matches.

“At Portsmouth we started well and we could have won that in terms of the clear-cut chances. We’re nearly there, we just need to be a bit more clinical and that will be the difference between the top six or being mid-table like lots of other teams.”

Keane isn’t expecting an easy evening at the Madejski Stadium: “It’s another tough game. As I say, I think we need to be a little bit more clinical when we get our chances.

“Overall, we’ve been pretty solid, but if we are ever going to get tested it will be on Tuesday because Reading are very attack-minded.

“They have very good attacking players, they seem to score lots of goals. On Saturday they scored three goals at home with 10 men. So, we have to be at our best and start better than we did the other day.

“As I’ve said before, we have to play well to get a result, but I think Reading will have to be at their very best to get a good result against us. It’s set up for a very, very good game.”

Reading are likely to include veteran defender Ian Harte, a player Keane knows well and a someone he admits he tried to bring to Portman Road last season prior to his switch to the Berkshire club: “I spoke to [the Carlisle] manager about one or two players and Hartey was one of them.

“Hartey’s a good player and a good lad. I had him at Sunderland and it’s good to see him playing because when he left Sunderland he went to Carlisle and, no disrespect to them, he should have been playing at a higher level.

“His goals record for a full-back is fantastic and they’re not all from dead balls. I’ve a lot of time for Hartey. He’ll do very well for Reading and it’s good to see him in the Championship.”

Keane says the Royals are one of several sides who will be in contention for the play-offs come May: “There are so many teams capable of challenging in the top six.

“QPR have had a brilliant start to the season and they’re out on their own at the moment, but there could be another 10 or 11 teams all competing for the top six and Reading could be one of those, certainly given their form since they got the new manager in last year.”

Keane says he has good options to choose from with a number of the players who impressed at Millwall last week in with a chance of coming into the side, although one or two unnamed members of his squad are doubts for tonight’s match with knocks suffered at Scunthorpe.

The Town manager seems unlikely to swap his keepers with Márton Fülöp set to keep his place in the team.

At left-back, Keane will probably stick with Darren O’Dea with Mark Kennedy still feeling his way back to full fitness after his hamstring injury. Damien Delaney is in a similar position after his thigh problem and is likely join Kennedy on the bench with Gareth McAuley and Tommy Smith continuing in the centre.

Keane may well recall Jaime Peters at right-back, the Canadian having done a good job when marking Reading wideman Jimmy Kebe — a player Keane cites as among the Royals’ main threats — during the match between the two sides at Portman Road last season. The Town manager may also feel that 18-year-old Tom Eastman needs a rest after three games in eight days.

In midfield, Luke Hyam will probably return in the holding role having made a difference after coming on during Saturday’s game at Scunthorpe. The Blues boss is conscious of not overplaying another of his 18-year-olds: “Luke’s doing an excellent job for us, he’s been disappointed to miss the last couple of games but we needed to rest the boy.

“He’s a young lad and we wanted to go easy with him but the way the game was going [at Scunthorpe] I thought we needed to throw him on.

“We don’t have to play him in there all the time, I have to be careful. We like that shape to the team when we’re away from home, but I think Grant can play there, Chuck, Colin Healy and Jake Livermore as well, so we’ve got good options. But at the moment Luke’s holding his hand up and saying ‘you’ve got to play me’, and that’s what good players do.”

Fitness-permitting, Keane will probably continue with skipper David Norris and Grant Leadbitter in the central positions ahead of Hyam with Andros Townsend and Carlos Edwards in the wide roles.

The Blues boss will have to choose between Connor Wickham, Jason Scotland and Tamás Priskin for the central striking position. Wickham may well get the nod despite being replaced after half an hour on Saturday. Keane may decide that Scotland needs a rest having rarely been involved with Wigan in pre-season and having had a busy start to his Town career.

Shane O’Connor trained last week after his torn hamstring and will play in a reserves friendly next week along with Luciano Civelli. Alan Quinn is doing a bit of jogging as he continues his return from a groin injury but is not yet twisting and turning.

Reading boss Brian McDermott will be without suspended pair Zurab Khizanishvili and Brian Howard, who were red-carded in the Royals’ last two matches.

Midfielder Jay Tabb will be missing due to an ankle injury, while defenders Andy Griffin and Julian Kelly have both been out with hamstring problems and may not be ready to return. Icelandic defender Ivar Ingimarsson could be back from a long absence after surgery, also on a hamstring injury.

Over the years Town, still unbeaten away from home this season, have had the edge over the Royals, who currently sit seventh in the Championship, winning 22 times (21 in the league), drawing nine (nine) and losing 14 (14). At home this season McDermott’s side have won two, drawn one and lost one.

The last time the teams met was in April when the Blues ran out 2-1 winners at Portman Road. Gareth McAuley and Jon Walters netted for Town with Gylfi Sigurdsson hitting a last minute consolation for the visitors. Earlier, Royals skipper Matt Mills had been shown a straight red card for a two-footed tackle on David Norris.

At the Madejski Stadium in November, Town inched off the bottom of the Championship table after a 1-1 draw. Jon Stead put the Blues ahead in the first half but Simon Church equalised for the home side just after the break.

Connor Wickham was a schoolboy with the Royals academy until his serviceman father was posted to Colchester in 2006 and he joined the Blues’ youth set-up.

Darren O’Dea was on loan at the Madejski Stadium last season, making seven starts and one sub appearance. Striker Kevin Lisbie, currently on loan with Millwall, also spent a brief loan spell with Reading when a Charlton player in 1999. No current member of Brian McDermott’s squad has previously played for Town.

Tuesday’s referee is Phil Crossley from Kent, who has shown 19 yellow cards and no red in seven games so far this season. Crossley’s most recent Blues match was the 3-1 home victory over Blackpool in December last year in which he booked Town’s Jon Walters and Grant Leadbitter and showed five more yellow cards to Tangerines players, midfielder David Vaughan receiving two of them and then a red.

Squad from: Fülöp, Murphy, Peters, Eastman, O’Dea, Kennedy, McAuley, Smith, Delaney, Hyam, Norris, Leadbitter, Livermore, Healy, Edwards, Townsend, Lambe, Wickham, Scotland, Priskin.

Story syndicated from TWTD.co.uk

Photo: Action Images

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