While Northampton could be boosted by a different voice in the dressing room, the hosts should secure a routine win on Boxing Day.
Reading have the fifth-best home return in League One, and that statistic should be advantageous against an opponent winless in their last eight road matches (five losses).
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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 Reading win with a probability of 65.54%. A draw had a probability of 19.7% and a win for Northampton Town had a probability of 14.77%.
The most likely scoreline for a Reading win was 2-0 with a probability of 11.05%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (10.43%) and 2-1 (9.86%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (9.32%), while for a Northampton Town win it was 0-1 (4.4%). The actual scoreline of 4-1 was predicted with a 3.7% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Reading would win this match.
0.06) 
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