I’M sure you’ll agree we’re not doing too badly for a team who finished in 17th place last season.

Yet another win for Jaap Stam’s team last weekend keeps us in third place, three points above nearest challengers in Birmingham.

A fifth successive victory for Royals means we now have 34 points from just 18 games, and two goals in six first-half minutes on Saturday afternoon was enough to hold off a desperate Bristol City team.

It was a familiar sight for the first; Garath McCleary saw his penalty saved by Frank Fielding, but the winger put away the rebound.

Reading have now missed four of our nine league penalties this season which is certainly a cause for concern. However, on all but one of those misses, we have converted the rebound. So we have effectively only missed one of the nine penalties.

Dutch winger Roy Beerens hit an early contender for goal of the season when he volleyed home Chris Gunter’s pinpoint cross – and the build-up wouldn’t have looked out of place in an El Classico.

Beerens started this campaign quite well but had a slight dip in form before Jaap Stam decided to replace him in the successful trip to Wigan three weeks ago. Since his re-inclusion, he has been outstanding.

It was a slightly shaky start however as City managed to create a few decent chances but they luckily came to nothing. It took a short while for Reading to settle into the game but once we had the majority of possession, we looked in complete control as we’ve seen a lot recently.

After last weekend’s game, Jaap Stam was quick to brush off our attacking qualities and instead heaped praise on our defensive performance.

The Royals’ boss commended the back five of Gunter, McShane, Blackett, Moore and Obita who worked well as a unit throughout the game. Our defence looked formidable in the air and didn’t once look out of shape.

Our next opponents in Fulham currently sit nine points below us in 10th, having won just three of their last 10 league games.

Our former loanee Lucas Piazon has scored two goals in eight appearances for them so far, and will be an interesting prospect if he starts on Saturday.