Royals eased for drop after comeback WBA win
READING staged a great recovery to defeat West Brom 3-2 on Saturday and breathed new life into their quest for Premier League survival.
A brace from Romelu Lukaku left the Royals trailing 2-0 with nine minutes to go and the hosts touched an in-play high of 480 on Betfair. But three goals, culminating in an injury-time Pavel Pogrebnyak strike were enough to take the Royals off the bottom of the table.
Brian McDermott’s side are three points from safety but it seems it will take more than one win to convince bookmakers that they can stage a great escape.
They have been eased from 1-6 to 1-4 in the relegation betting.
Aston Villa were the big losers of the day as they slumped to a 1-0 defeat to fellow strugglers Southampton, a result that took them into the bottom three.
Villa are just evens to fall into the Championship after being sunk by Rickie Lambert’s penalty and these are worrying times for manager Paul Lambert.
They have won just one of their last nine home matches and he is 4-7 to be the next top-flight manager to lose his job.
QPR and Newcastle earned valuable points with goalless draws against Tottenham and Norwich, while Chelsea closed the gap behind second-placed Manchester City to four points with a 4-0 win at Stoke.
They are a general 12-1 to win the title.
