The striker wasted no time in endearing himself to Royals fans with a brilliant brace in Saturday’s 3-0 home win over Fulham.

Murray rattled in 31 goals for Crystal Palace during the 2012/13 season when they were promoted to the Premier League.

He missed almost the entire season that followed in the top flight as he battled back to fitness from a serious knee injury.

But Murray, 30, looked back to his very best last weekend with a superb performance and two goals against 10-man Cottagers.

And Adkins is confident the on-loan Palace striker will continue to improve as the campaign progresses.

“Glenn scored two goals and he’s only going to get better,” declared Royals’ boss.

“He’s come in, worked really hard and has done really well. He’s got all kinds of finishes in the locker and it looked like he’d been playing with Simon Cox for years. They are two intelligent players.

“We took Glenn off with 25 minutes to go, He’s got to get used to playing football again and getting to that fitness level.

“And we’ve got options up front as well now. Pavel Pogrebnyak came on after being injured, and Nick Blackman came on and scored a really good goal.”

Murray opened his Royals account with an excellent diving header from Joran Obita’s inch-perfect cross just 15 minutes into his debut on Saturday.

Royals were then given another boost four minutes later when Matt Smith was sent off on his Fulham debut for a high-footed tackle on Hope Akpan.

Adkins’ men dominated from there with Murray heading his second of the day from an Obita corner in the 55th minute.

Substitute Blackman put the icing on the cake with a smart finish five minutes from time as Royals made it back-to-back wins in the Championship.

Murray was denied the chance to score a debut hat-trick when he was taken off midway through the second half, and Adkins explained: “It was a call I had to make, a striker on two goals always wants a hat-trick.

“But I know he’s just joined so I have to be mindful as we have seven games in 22 days.

“I’ve got to look at the big picture and make the decisions. We lost Pavel to injury recently because we weren’t able to take him off in games, but I was able to change it on Saturday.

“I would have loved Glenn to have scored a third goal, but you’ll kick yourself if he breaks down. You just take the risk out of it.”

Reading are due to host Millwall at Madejski Stadium on Tuesday night (8pm) then travel to Sheffield Wednesday this Saturday (3pm).

Royston Drenthe is ineligible to play for the Owls as part of his loan move from Reading.