Four successive wins have lifted Bournemouth to 10th in the table – behind seventh-placed Nottingham Forest on just goal difference.
Eddie Howe's men have closed to within five points off the play-off places and a 2-1 win over pre-season title favourites QPR on Saturday proved their quality.
Bournemouth had to play the last 22 minutes with just 10 men after Harry Arter's was shown a straight red card but they still had enough about them to see off QPR, who lie third.
"We are in a good position, we have momentum and we are heading in the right direction," Tommy Elphick, a scorer on Saturday, said.
"I don't think there would be too many teams that would want to play us at the moment.
"If we can get the momentum going, then who knows what will happen."
Increasing the importance of the game is the fact that Reading sit sixth – meaning a Bournemouth win would take them within two points of Nigel Adkins' outfit.
Reading edged struggling Charlton Athletic 1-0 on Saturday thanks to Daniel Williams' second-half strike.
That result saw Charlton's advantage ahead of the relegation zone slashed, as Yeovil and Millwall, the league's bottom two, both won.
Barnsley, who occupy the last place in the bottom three, also drew, increasing the pressure on Charlton ahead of a must-win home fixture. Yeovil have lost just one of their last five matches.
Millwall travel to an in-form Wigan Athletic outfit and Barnsley also have a tough road trip, visiting the second-placed Burnley.
Leeds United will travel to Watford with the club's messy ownership saga finally resolved.
Italian Massimo Cellino was initially blocked by the Football League from taking over at Leeds, but won a subsequent appeal on Saturday and quickly pledged to return the club to its former glories.
Leeds' players should have eventually been paid their full March wages by the time the Vicarage Road fixture begins – and they will take heart from a 2-1 win at the same venue on the final day of last season, a result that forced Watford into an ultimately unsuccessful play-off campaign.
With Leicester City's promotion sealed on Saturday, their attention will turn to the Championship title when they welcome the visit of Brighton and Hove Albion.
Other sides involved in the play-off hunt are QPR and Derby County, who visit Blackburn Rovers and Blackpool respectively.
Nottingham Forest will look to an arrest an alarming slump in form at home to Sheffield Wednesday and Ipswich Town face a Huddersfield Town side who have not won since March 1.
Elsewhere, Middlesbrough welcome Birmingham City and Doncaster Rovers meet Bolton Wanderers.
