Northampton may have got the better of Reading in the reverse fixture, but the Royals tend to produce their best performances on home turf.
Having won six of their last nine matches in Berkshire, we think that Reading will make full use of home advantage to edge out Northampton on Friday.
Read more.
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 Reading win with a probability of 62.92%. A draw had a probability of 20.3% and a win for Northampton Town had a probability of 16.79%.
The most likely scoreline for a Reading win was 2-0 with a probability of 10.16%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.94%) and 1-0 (9.74%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (9.52%), while for a Northampton Town win it was 1-2 (4.65%). The actual scoreline of 1-0 was predicted with a 9.7% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Reading would win this match.