PHIL Parkinson is confident Reading FC will have a successful season despite their poor start.

Royals legend Parky consigned his former club to their worst league start for 59 years when his Bolton side triumphed 1-0 at Madejski Stadium on Saturday.

It was Reading’s third straight Championship defeat leaving them one place off the bottom heading into tonight’s clash at Blackburn Rovers (7.45pm ko).

But Trotter boss Parky, who clocked up more than 400 Reading appearances over an 11-year period, expected Paul Clement’s men to quickly improve.

He said: “Reading have quality players. The front two (Baldock and McNulty) are bright, Baldock will get better and better the more he plays.

“Reading have dangerous players with Bodvarsson coming off the bench.

“I watched all their games and I thought they were terrific against Derby and I don’t know how they didn’t get at least a point.

“They went to Forest and played well again against one of the fancied teams in the division.

“I think Reading will have a very good season.”

Reading Chronicle:

Reading failed to find a way past Bolton keeper, Ben Alnwick.

Yanic Wildschut’s notched the winner early in the second half, though Bolton were also indebted to a superb save by Ben Alnwick to keep out John Swift’s first-half free-kick.

Parky, who celebrated his first victory as a manager against Reading, added: “My wife reminded me that I hadn’t gone back to Reading and won.

“It was a hard game, hot and sticky, and we had to push ourselves to get the result. Reading didn’t hand it to us at all, we had to earn it.

“I feel Reading are a lot better team than their start suggests. They have some real quality players but we restricted them to very little and scored a really good goal ourselves.

“We drew last year in a very tense affair when both teams were down the bottom, so I was really pleased with the lads.

“We were gritty and determined and we put our bodies on the line, which is what we’ve got to do.

“There were a couple of key moments like the Swift free-kick where Andy Taylor follows in. It’s important defenders react in those situations.”

Meanwhile, new loan signing Josh Sims looks set to make his Reading debut at Ewood Park tonight.

The 21-year-old attacking midfielder joined Royals on Monday until the end of the season.

Mo Barrow and Sone Aluko are both in contention after recovering from knocks, while Tiago Ilori could replace Paul McShane in defence having been dropped for the Bolton clash.