THE Royals will take on Fulham this afternoon as they vie for a place in the Premier League. 

Reading travel to Craven Cottage (5.30pm ko) for the first leg of the Championship play-offs.

And Royals' boss Jaap Stam knows it will be a tough test against the Cottagers.

"We beat them at home and they have beaten us," asserted Stam.

"In the play-offs it's about the two legs.

"It's a different approach and a different level of stress for teams, managers and players."

Reading were thumped 5-0 during their last visit to Craven Cottage back in December.

The following fixture was abandonned at half-time due to fog but Royals were victorious in the replay, edging a narrow 1-0 win.

And Stam insisted his players will go into today's fixture with nothing to fear.

"We haven't spoken about the 5-0 defeat, we have only spoken about the 1-0 win at home," he declared.

"They have their own system and so do we. We both like possession and we both like to create chances from possession and score goals."

Fulham have been tipped by many as favourites to secure top-flight status by winning the Championship play-offs.

The Cottagers have lost just two of their last 17 Championship fixtures.

But Stam said his side are more than capable of defeating the odds.

"We are ready for it," he continued.

"Everyone is looking forward to it.

"If you want to go up you're going to face better teams than Fulham so you need to match yourself with every team in the league.

"If we didn't get them in the semi-finals we might have got them in the finals."

We will have live coverage from the match right here on the Chronicle website. 

You can also follow sports editor Anthony Smith here and reporter Courtney Friday here

Kick-off 5.30pm

In this week's Chronicle you will find a 16-page pull-out with all the information you need ahead of the game. 

Reading Chronicle: