Steven Schumacher is backing his players to meet their latest test head-on as they face a further examination of their top-six credentials.
Wanderers extended their unbeaten run to seven games thanks to a late leveller at high-flying Lincoln City on Saturday. And Schumacher wants to follow that up with a big result at Reading when the Whites take on another in-form team tomorrow (Tuesday) night.
“As I said after the game, Saturday’s was a good result for us in the end,” said the Whites’ boss, who has taken his side up to third place in the League One table. “It was a game that was competitive, two good teams, a game that I felt we started well in, had to dig in and defend for large periods of and then ended the game well and in the end could have won it, could have lost it, could have won it.
“So it was probably a fair result and we go into Tuesday now with the emphasis of trying to get another good result against a team that are playing really well. Since Leam (Richardson) has gone in there they've been excellent, I must say. He's done a great job and taken them from, I think they were 20th in the division when he took over, to seventh now.
“They score goals and have only lost two out of their last 12 games, so they're a team that, again, will be full of confidence themselves. I think it'll be an open game, a different type of game than the one on Saturday at Lincoln. There'll probably be more football played in it and we're looking forward to it. It's a good challenge.
“I'd say it's a different test. Whether it suits us or not I think we've shown both sides of our game well this season. We've gone to places where we've had to stand and go toe-to-toe with teams and have a battle and we've come out of them relatively okay.
“This game, I would say, will be more of a footballing game. They're a bit more expansive and create more opportunities in open play than probably Lincoln do. It’ll be a difficult game, but again, they'll know that we've got threats as well and if we can play to the level that we can play to we can cause them a problem.”
Reading have lost only once at home since August and have given themselves a chance of forcing their way into the play-off places since appointing former Wigan and Rotherham boss Richardson at the end of October.
However, the seventh-placed Royals remain 10 points adrift of Wanderers who could close the six-point gap behind the automatic promotion places with a fifth away success of the campaign.
The Whites have a clean bill of health following the 1-1 draw at Sincil Bank, when January signings Ruben Rodrigues and Johnny Kenny both made their Wanderers’ debuts.
The pair came off the bench along with winger Ibby Cissoko and fit-again midfielder Josh Sheehan and helped set up a comeback capped by top scorer Sam Dalby’s fifth goal in four games to give Schumacher options to alter what had been an unchanged line-up for three games in a row.
“Picking the same starting team has been good because it shows that we're doing well and we're getting results,” added the head coach. “It also shows that, as I say, the schedule hasn't been too strenuous over the last few weeks, that you can have Saturday-Saturday fixtures and it gives lads plenty of time to recover.
“Tuesday night games, certainly away from home, pose a different test and we have to make sure that we get the starting11 right and we have to make sure that we get the bench right because, as we proved on Saturday, that's so important. I felt all the subs that came off the bench on Saturday had a positive impact on the team and we'll probably need that again on Tuesday.”
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