Can Reading Avoid Relegation from EFL Championship?

Reading FC haven't played third tier football since 2002 and did just enough to avoid dropping back down to that level last season.

"Madejski Stadium - Reading" (CC BY 2.0) by markhillary

Entering the final third of this EFL Championship campaign, the Royals moved out of the relegation zone thanks to a late winner from one of their January transfer window signings. The question is can they keep their heads above water? Portuguese head coach Jose Manuel Gomes, a former assistant to Jesualdo Ferreira, arrived at the Madejski Stadium just before Christmas, but only won two of his first 10 games in charge,

The club owners backed their new boss with loan signings in the winter window including Chelsea duo Lewis Baker and Matt Miazga, but it is centre forward Nelson Oliveira who everyone connected with Reading will look to for goals that will save them.

Like Gomes, he is Portuguese and represented his country at Euro 2012 where he reached the semi-finals alongside Cristiano Ronaldo.

Oliveira is on loan from Norwich City, where he was surplus to requirements and had fallen out of favour. The Canaries' concerns are at the opposite end of the table, so they saw no harm in letting him join the Royals.

As a proven Championship goalscorer, Oliveira is exactly what Reading needed and at 27 is entering his prime. He scored on his debut for the club, helping them to an away point at fellow strugglers Bolton Wanderers.

"Nelson Oliveira" by Ilya Khokhlov (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Fans of any football club want to see new recruits get stuck in, particularly when fighting a relegation battle. Oliveira has already bled for the Royals after a clash with Aston Villa loanee Tyrone Mings led to facial injuries.

A broken nose for his trouble hasn't stopped the Portuguese striker from returning to action and making another important contribution to the cause. Oliveira hit the winner as Reading bested Blackburn Rovers 2-1.

That is precisely the kind of impact everyone at the Royals was hoping he could have - turning defeats into draws and draws into victories. Just six in the league all season and 15 defeats tells you why they are in trouble.

The win took them out of the bottom three, and the latest football betting on Championship relegation has Reading at 11/10 to go down with bet365. That puts them fourth favourites for the drop.

There are other positives, however, which suggests survival can happen again. With 14 games of the season left, the Royals had scored more league goals than Stoke City - one of the pre-season fancies for promotion.

Such a stat might say more about the decline of the Potters than any virtues at the Madejski though. There is also the fact they've conceded fewer goals than Villa, another Midlands club that looks destined for mid-table.

Reading have kept just six clean sheets and that's the joint third worst in the Championship with 14 games left for most sides. The addition of Miazga, a CONCACAF Gold Cup winner with the USA back in 2017, should hopefully help them to shore things up defensively.