Gavin Mahon / Gavin Mahon / 08 January 2009 / Leave a comment

QPR midfielder Gavin Mahon on poor FA Cup showings, the January transfer window, Boro's stance on Stewart Downing and Watford's visit to Reading.

It's back to the league for us this weekend after our FA Cup tie didn't really produce some of the magic of the games elsewhere.

It's not great getting drawn against a team in your own division for a start. But the least you can ask for is a home tie and that's what we got against Burnley - but our performance was off our best and it ended up being a fairly dull goalless draw.

The fans booed us off at both half-time and full-time at Loftus Road. I could understand their frustration on the day. They'd paid their way to get into the match, even season ticket holders need to shell out for a cup game, so felt entitled to better than what we offered them.

We were saying between ourselves at half-time that the last thing we really want is a replay, but that's what we've got. I suppose Tottenham did us a favour by taking the wind out of Burnley's sails a bit this week so we'll travel all the way up there on Monday with the confidence of a side capable of producing a performance to beat anyone in our division on our day. And don't forget, we beat a pretty much full-strength Villa side at their own place in the Carling Cup so this replay shouldn't hold any fears for us.

Of course we're into January now and all the talk is who's going and who's staying up and down the country. The media portray the transfer windows as really unsettling time for clubs but, you know what, players tend to just crack on with what they're doing.

Most of the lads at a club know where they're going to be come February. Speculation tends only to affect one or two players per club below the Premiership and it's usually no secret who they are. Rangers find themselves in the situation of being more likely to buy than sell - or at least get players in than let them go, if you see the difference - and that's not true of many sides in this division.

But the board here know full well that they'll be asked to pay over-the-odds for players other clubs might get at a lower price. So I agree with their stance about being cautious and only really acting if they know it's in the best interests of the long-term future of the club.

I admit it's not true to say that all clubs everywhere are just carrying on like nothing's happening. Portsmouth's a good example of a club having to conduct their business in the public eye and you had Jermain Defoe making it clear what his intentions were.

The same's happened with Stewart Downing at Middlesbrough but, fair play to the club, they've been very clear about what's happening with the player. I think if clubs can remove that uncertainty by being definite about what they're doing, that's probably the best way to deal with these transfer windows now.

Reading v Watford,

Sky Sports 1, Friday 9th January, 8.00pm

Every week Betting.betfair.com's chief Premiership previewer Richard Walker chats to Gavin about the biggest of the weekend's televised matches in The Championship and recommends a couple of bets based on Gavin's insight into the match.

Gavin says:

As well as having played seven years at Watford, I worked under Steve Coppell at Brentford so this game is between two sides I know quite a bit about, on a personal level.

Steve was a great manager; you couldn't have been clearer about what was expected of you and I think that really is half the battle towards setting up a successful side.

He loves consistency and continuity and it wasn't any surprise to me that he kept faith with so many of the players that got the team promoted when they did so well that first year in the Premiership. Of course things change and players' attitudes become different after a year in the top-flight, but Steve's ethos about the game hasn't changed one bit.

You often see managers getting their sides to play in their own image as a player. That's true in Steve's case, he loves to play with real width - being an ex-winger himself - and his side, like he was, are tremendously hard-working.

Stephen Hunt, for example, gets involved in much of the play which is unusual for wide players. It shows you how much they value stretching their opposition. They've got some clever players who make use of the big pitch at The Madejski and I'm really not surprised they are up there challenging again.

With Reading's home form as solid as it is, it's going to be really hard for Watford. They seem to have been a brighter since the new manager, Brendan Rodgers, took over. He's stopped the goals leaking but they're not totally out of the woods near the bottom and I think Reading will expose what weaknesses Watford still have.

Watford are hard-working themselves and decent in possession so I can see them scoring at some point.

Richard suggests:

Back Reading to win the match 3-1 at odds of [13.5], covering on 2-1 to the Royals at [9.0]

Back Over 2.5 goals with confidence, a [1.74] shot - perhaps also dabble with Over 3.5 goals at [2.82]

Support the home side's superiority with a back of Reading/Reading in the Half-Time/Full-Time section, priced at [2.36]

Take Stephen Hunt to be First Goalscorer, roughly [8.5] to back when the market develops