Filed under: Reading, Leeds, Championship, Football, Match Previews
CHAMPIONSHIP: ELLAND ROAD, FRIDAY APRIL 22, 2011. KICK-OFF: 1945 BSTThey don't come much bigger than this as the race for the Premier League reaches an exciting climax.
In-form Reading, 14th in the table in December, will move into an automatic promotion place with three games remaining if they make it nine wins out of nine.
And stumbling Leeds, who have occupied a play-off spot for the last five months, could drop out of the top-six if they lose for the third time in four games.
The pressure is well and truly on Leeds manager Simon Grayson as he seeks to bring top-flight football back to Elland Road for the first time in seven years.
Having steered the fallen Yorkshire giant to promotion from League One last season, the former Blackpool manager knows fans will not rest until the three-times league champions are back in the Premier League.
Reading enjoyed two seasons in the top-tier before suffering relegation in 2008.
Yet they are making huge strides under Brian McDermott, the former Arsenal player who is in his 11th year at the Berkshire club, where he occupied roles as chief scout and reserve manager before taking charge of the first team in December 2009.
Form Guide: Reading have enjoyed a phenomenal surge up the table since the start of the calendar year. Eleventh in the table on New Year's Day, the Royals arrive at Elland Road on the back of an incredible eight-match winning run. In contrast, Leeds' promotion charge has stuttered in recent weeks, one win in six games leaving their promotion hopes on a knife edge.
Key Match-Up: Kasper Schmeichel v Shane Long: Leeds keeper Schmeichel managed to keep a clean sheet when these two teams met back in November. Since then Long has found the net 20 times to spearhead Reading's surge, the 24-year-old Irish striker second only to Watford's Danny Graham in the Championship's scoring charts.
Odds: Leeds 7/4, Reading 13/8, Draw 13/5
LEEDS:
Ken Bates has issued a blunt warning to the club's players at the start of a crucial two weeks which will make or break the season.
"We've got four and hopefully seven games to go and everybody is playing for their jobs," the
straight-talking chairman said. That shouldn't be forgotten.
"If we don't get promotion for example then the question must be raised: 'Are we good enough to get promotion?' If not, where we're wanting or lacking we're going to strengthen.
"It's a hard world out there and it's important both for the club and the individual players' careers that they get rid of the nerves.
"They're good players -they demonstrated it earlier this season - and we're just having a bad run. But we must overcome it."
Leeds' final three league games after this are at relegation-threatened Crystal Palace on Monday, at home to play-off chasing Burnley on April 30 before bringing the curtain down on the Championship season at top-of-the-table Queens Park Rangers on May 7.
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