Reading v Nottingham Forest

Last updated : 28 February 2015 By Forest

Nottingham Forest, the Championship's form side, headed to the Madejski Stadium on Saturday afternoon to meet Reading and knowing that they needed to maintain their winning run to keep alive unlikely hopes of a play-off place at the end of the season.

The two sides had contrasting fortunes in midweek, the Royals losing heavily at Huddersfield on Tuesday night before the Reds defeated promotion-chasing Bournemouth.

Team News: With 24 hours less to prepare and a gruelling 90 minutes against the Cherries still fresh in the memory. Dougie Freedman's pre-match dilemma was whether to stick or twist in his team selection.

The Scot opted to start with Michael Mancienne, Matty Fryatt and Jamie Paterson as Chris Burke, Gary Gardner and Dexter Blackstock dropped to the bench.

Opposite number Steve Clarke, meanwhile, had changed his side considerably for the trip to Huddersfield, ahead of a busy run of fixtures, but was left disappointed by the manner of the defeat.

His starting XI for Saturday contained six alterations with former Forest men Chris Gunter, Simon Cox and Garath McCleary and Nathaniel Chalobah all included.

Match Action: Both sides traded chances in an entertaining first-half before Forest came out after the break with Burke entering the fray in place of Paterson.

Ben Osborn made the breakthrough for the visitors on 56 minutes with a shot from outside the penalty area before Matty Fryatt doubled the advantage with 20 minutes remaining.

Fryatt was withdrawn for Gardner and the Villa loanee put the seal on another impressive display by the Reds who are now ninth in the table, nine points off a play-off place.

The bandwagon rolls on to Charlton Athletic on Tuesday night, the Addicks themselves having enjoyed a 3-0 victory of their own against Huddersfield on Saturday.