STEVE Clarke believes he will be able to gauge the potential of his new-look Reading FC side after the next two games against firm promotion favourites.

Royals return from a fortnight's international break with two mouthwatering home games at Madejski Stadium.

Clarke's men start with a televised clash against Championship big-guns Ipswich Town tonight (8pm ko, live Sky Sports) and then host Derby County on Tuesday night (8pm ko).

And only then will Clarke begin to form a realistic picture of what his side is capable of.

He said: “We have some fantastic fixtures coming up – Ipswich Town, Derby, Bristol City, Burnley, Middlesbrough and Everton in the Capital One Cup.

“But first of all we have two home games against teams everyone would have in their shortlists for promotion. For us it will be a real good test.

“I think we are a team that is stable, not spectacular, but building for the future.

“It's important when you make a lot of changes that you also have stability and I think we have managed to do that.

“But now we test ourselves against two big promotion contenders to see how we do.”

Clarke ordered wholesale changes at Madejski Stadium during the summer, bringing in 11 new players, releasing 15 others and forming a new coaching team.

Matej Vydra, Ola John, Lucas Piazon, Orlando Sa, Paolo Hurtado, Jonathan Bond, Ali Al-Habsi, Alex Fernandez, Paul McShane, Stephen Quinn and Andrew Taylor all came on board.

Meanwhile, those players to leave the club were Adam Federici, Jem Karacan, Alex Pearce, Danny Guthrie, Stephen Kelly, Pavel Pogrebnyak, Jamie Mackie, Yakubu, Nathaniel Chalobah, Ryan Edwards, Jure Travner, Mikkel Andersen, Hope Akpan, Zat Knight and Kwesi Appiah.

But while Royals got their Championship campaign off to a losing start at Birmingham City, they are now unbeaten in their six subsequent games.

And Clarke feels his players should be pleased with the start they have had.

“We've played seven matches in all and lost one, so the squad is gelling well,” he stated. “We added three more player late in the window so maybe we will sit down before the next international break in four or five weeks and see how the squad has settled.”

Clarke also admitted he had no choice but to pull apart last season's squad which finished a disappointing 19th in the table.

“I don't count players, I just take them as and when they are available. I mean, 14 players went out if you include loan signings.

“We needed these changes, it was a squad that needed to be broken up and rebuilt.

“I asked the owners to make significant changes to the playing squad and coaching staff and they gave me that backing.

“I'm grateful for that. We haven't spent million if pounds, in fact I think we have balanced the books really well.

“I think Derby spent £10 million on two midfield players on the last day of the window. We haven't done that, we don't have those resources, we have to be creative.

“But the Michael Hector deal with Chelsea gave us some money and I think we spent it wisely.

“The squad has given the supporters a sense of optimism so we must have done something right.

“Now we have to get it right on the pitch and get some results.”

Paul McShane is an injury doubt for the clash against Ipswich, with Hector set to start in his place alongside Anton Ferdinand.

With a host of players returning from international duty this week, Clarke is unlikely to finalise his squad until tomorrow morning.

Chris Gunter and Hal Robson-Kanu (both Wales), Danny Williams (USA), Quinn and McShane (both Republic of Ireland), Hector (Jamaica), Oliver Norwood (Northern Ireland), Ali Al-Habsi (Oman) and Hurtado (Peru) have all been involved with their country.

Royals did the double over Mick McCarthy's Tractor Boys last season thanks to a pair of 1-0 victories home and away.