Brian McDermott has warned his Reading squad not to get carried away with any thoughts of a late promotion bid  as he targets a fourth straight home league victory at the expense of Bristol City tomorrow (3pm kick-off).

McDermott’s men top the Championship form table, having won six of their last eight games.

Although Royals remain 11 points adrift of the play-off zone, they have two games in hand on some rivals.

And fans are now daring to dream of a play-off date at Wembley to make up for the heart-break of last weekend’s FA Cup quarter-final defeat at home to Aston Villa.

McDermott, though, insists there is no talk of a top-six finish in the changing-room at the moment.

He told getreading: “We haven’t achieved anything yet. We’re only talking about Bristol City and getting prepared for that game.

“Football is a great discussion topic, but for me I like to just break it down into small segments. I’m only interested in Bristol City.”

McDermott has completely turned around the club’s fortunes since taking over from Brendan Rodgers as Royals boss three months ago.

Before the start of the year Jimmy Kebe and Shane Long were out of favour and looked destined for the Madejski Stadium exit door. But the pair have flourished under McDermott and helped fire the club up the table. Both were on target in Reading’s 4-1 home win over Derby County in midweek.

McDermott’s only focus now, though, is on the threat posed by Robins’ on-loan striker Chris Iwelumo and the rest of Gary Johnson’s squad.

Royals’ boss said: “I watched Bristol City win 1-0 at Crystal Palace on Tuesday night and Iwelumo scored a cracking goal. He was a real handful.

“I’ll watch some more videos before the game and make sure we’re prepared as well as we can be to make it seven wins from eight games in the league.”

McDermott’s first game in charge of Reading was their 1-1 draw with City at Ashton Gate in December last year and he is eagerly looking forward to the return fixture.

He added: “This game is always a good one because it’s a bit of a derby and you tend to get quite a few fans travelling from Bristol.”

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