Occasionally little gems of value can be found when trawling through the seemingly endless markets sports books produce for high profile soccer games. And like finding porn under your dad's bed, sometimes it can lead to a eureka!! moment.
Since taking hold of the reins at the Madjeski following the unfortunate departure of Brendan Rogers back in December 2009, Brian McDermott has presided over Reading on their away day travels on 29 occasions.
Last seasons ultimately failed late play-off push, saw 13 games away from Berkshire with the Royals winning 3, drawing 4 and losing 6. But we are not really interested in that; it's the corner count that deserves further scrutiny. Ignoring the penultimate game of the season at Watford, where Reading inexplicably came away without even a corner?? 8 of those games 66% saw over 11 corners. This season they fair even better with 12, 75% of the 16 away games going over 11 corners.
With Reading averaging 6.93 corners per game on the road along with a hosts average of 6.25, this season taking on the higher total of 12 corners would still see a 19.47% yield on investment. Over 11 it's an impressive 43.25%.
In all fairness there is no guarantee this pattern will continue, but Mr McDermott does like his wide men and with the likes of McAnuff, Kebe and Robson-Kanu (can all go outside the full-back) in the squad along with a tendency to throw caution to the wind and go for 3 points rather than settle for 1 it might just pay to follow
So next Friday night when you're pouring over the weekend footy a small glance to see where the Royals are performing might just be worth a second look.