BRIAN McDermott is determined to prevent Reading FC from becoming another of Walsall's Championship scalps in tomorrow's FA Cup fourth-round tie at Madejski Satdium (3pm ko), writes Anthony Smith.

Only 12 places separate the teams in the Football League pyramid, with Walsall riding high in third place in League One.

Sean O'Driscoll's promotion-chasing side have already beaten three Championship clubs this season after dumping Nottingham Forest and Brighton out of the Capital One Cup.

They also knocked Brentford out of the FA Cup in round three having beaten Fleetwood and Chesterfield in the earlier rounds.

And it clear McDermott will not be taking the visitors lightly.

“I've seen them live twice this season and they are a good team,” he declared.

“They play good football and they have a goalscorer in Tom Bradshaw. They have the young left back Rico Henry who a lot of Premier Legaue teams are looking at. They've got Romaine Sawyers who used to be at West Brom, so they've got a lot of attacking threats.

“They went to Brentford and won and they have beaten other good Championship sides this season.

“They are doing really well in League One so they obviously know what they're doing.”

Tomorrow's cup clash will also see McDermott line up next to his former teammate O'Driscoll on the Madejski Stadium sidelines.

“They have a manager who knows his way around football,” added McDermott. “He's been in the game all his life and I actually played with him in 1982 when I was on loan at Fulham.

“Sean has also been at Liverpool recently and I know him well.

“This will be a reall good test for us. It's a cup tie and we want to go through and get as far as we can.”

Reading reached round four by beating Huddersfield Town 5-2 in a replay last week thanks to a hat-trick from Matej Vydra.

McDermott will be picking from strength tomorrow with fit-again trio Paul McShane, Arron Tshibola and Stephen Quinn all available for selection.

New signing Deniss Rakels could also be involved, though Garath McCleary remains sidelined with a hamstring problem.

And McDermott said he was grateful for some extra preparation time this week following the recent hectic schedule.

“Since I've been here we've had no time whatsoever with game after game after game, so I was really pleased to have an extra couple of of days this week in order to work with the squad and do a bit more on the training pitch,” he stressed.

McDermott has led Royals to two FA Cup quarter finals in the past, and he is eager to go as far as he can once again, while avoiding an upset in the process.

“I was part of the FA Cup game when we were 2-0 up against Aston Villa in the quarter final and playing really well,” he recalled.

“We should have been out of sight but lost 4-2. I don't know if that was an upset but it certainly upset me.”

Meanwhile, McDermott played down links with Walsall's highly-rated striker Bradshaw, saying: “I know him - I’ve watched him a couple of times. There has been speculation about Tom and I think he’s a good player.

“But Tom is a Walsall player. He’s someone I like but he hasn’t particularly been on our radar.

“He’s a box player, he can score, hold the ball up well. He’s a player we have to have the utmost respect for.”

Follow tomorrow's FA Cup clash live at www.readingchronicle.co.uk and for regular Twitter updates follow @rdgchronicle and @Smudgersport.