Lively Leeds likely to march on and land back-to-back victories

Sky Bet Championship
Sky Sports Football & Main Event, 7.45pm Tuesday

Leeds have been marching onwards despite suffering a spate of injuries in recent weeks and they look worthy short-priced favourites to see off Reading at Elland Road.

Well-coached teams find ways of getting results in difficult circumstances and Leeds did exactly that on Saturday by registering a well-deserved 2-0 victory at home to Bristol City.

Injuries had forced Marcelo Bielsa to hand full debuts to goalkeeper Will Huffer and centre-back Aapo Hulme, and two other rookies – goalkeeper Kamil Miazek and defender Leif Davis – were among the substitutes.

But Leeds still performed at a high level and dominated after Bristol City midfielder Josh Brownhill was sent off in the 55th minute.

Bielsa's side will be slightly stronger against Reading with regular goalkeeper Bailey-Peacock Farrell expected to return between the sticks and they should fancy their chances of achieving back-to-back league wins for the first time since August.

• Sky Bet Championship standings

Reading make the trip north buoyed by a three-match unbeaten sequence although there hasn't been a significant rise in their performance level.

They started November with a fortuitous 3-2 victory at home to Bristol City, losing the shot count 20 to eight, and followed up with draws at home to basement boys Ipswich (2-2) and away to Wigan (0-0).

Reading's clean sheet at Wigan, their first in nine matches, was welcome although they were let off the hook by some wayward finishing from the Latics, who had gone into the game bidding to halt a four-match losing sequence.

Shutting out Leeds will be a lot tougher and Reading might decide that their best chance is to fight fire with fire.

The Royals are the top scorers among the bottom eight teams with 24 goals and their pacy attack, spearheaded by six-goal striker Yakou Meite, should cause a few problems for the understrength Leeds defence.

However, a goal for the visitors may be little more than a consolation against a Leeds side intent on turning up the heat on their promotion rivals.

Recommendation
Leeds to win & both teams to score
1pt 21-10 Betway

Bet on this match at Soccerbase.com

Team news
Leeds
Bailey Peacock-Farrell (knee) is expected to return but Pontus Jansson (foot), Gaetano Berardi (hamstring), Luke Ayling and Patrick Bamford (both knee) are unavailable. Bamford is back in training but lacks match fitness.

Reading
Jon Dadi Bodvarsson (back) and Mo Barrow (illness) missed the 0-0 draw at Wigan on Saturday.

Key stat
Reading have scored in 12 of their last 15 league matches.

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