Preston North End have been on a fantastic recent run of form, and although they have struggled at home for large parts of the campaign, the victory against rivals Blackpool in their last game here should be a morale-boosting result.
Not only that, but Reading have been very poor away from home all season, and we cannot see that changing against a side in playoff contention, with the likely result being a comfortable home win.
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Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Preston North End win with a probability of 54.98%. A draw had a probability of 24% and a win for Reading had a probability of 20.99%.
The most likely scoreline for a Preston North End win was 1-0 with a probability of 12.03%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (10.21%) and 2-1 (9.69%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.42%), while for a Reading win it was 0-1 (6.73%). The actual scoreline of 2-1 was predicted with a 9.7% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Preston North End would win this match.