Reading FC manager Mark Bowen believes his side are favourites at home to Luton Town on Saturday - but admits it is a different type of pressure from being the underdog.

Bowen remains undefeated after three games as Royals boss, beating Preston and Millwall at the Madejski Stadium and drawing away to QPR.

Reading were outsiders against high-flying Preston and QPR but certainly favourites to beat Millwall, which they did comfortably after a dominant first hour.

With Luton in poor form and Reading climbing the table, Bowen hopes his side can continue their good run against the Hatters at the Mad Stad on Saturday afternoon.

He said: "No disrespect to Luton, but we are warmer favourites for this game than Millwall as we have been on a good run and Luton have slipped into the bottom three.

"It is very easy for players mentally to think the job is done before you have put the effort in and one of the key messages I said to the guys when I got the job is they have all the ability in the world as a team but that is nothing without that steely desire and putting the hard yards in.

"The easiest thing for any striker is for the ball to come to feet. Those are the easy arts to come to feet but the hard stuff is spinning away and getting the ball in behind like Baldock and Puscas have been doing.

"We need to be harder to play against and we need to be like that on Saturday."

Despite the favourites tag, Bowen is in no doubt that Graeme Jones' side will provide a stern test for his troops at the weekend.

He added: "It will be difficult and they are one of the highest scoring teams in the league which means they are dangerous and they have ammunition that can hurt us.

"From our point of view, they do concede a lot as well and I just have to be careful it doesn't become a basketball game.

"I know Graeme very well and we have had similar coaching careers so we have combat against his ideas and there will be an expectancy on Saturday with everyone expecting us to win."