READING FC will spend Christmas Day sitting in their highest league table position for eight years – to the sheer delight of skipper Paul McShane.

Jaap Stam’s men sit comfortably in third position in the Championship table with 40 points – their most at this stage since the 2008/09 campaign.

They are now aiming to strengthen their promotion bid over the festive period with back-to-back home fixtures against Norwich City on Boxing Day (3pm kick-off) and Fulham on Friday week (8pm kick-off) up next.

Royals have also enjoyed the most possession for any Championship side this season and McShane beamed: “We’re up there in third. At the end of last season, who would have said we’d be third going into Christmas?

“So we’ve done well and we deserve to be up there – the lads work hard and the manager works extremely hard.

“He’s got us set up brilliantly and the way we are playing is the correct way of playing by keeping the ball, it’s a joy to be part of this team.

“It’s nice to see it paying off with results. We are going to make mistakes and lose the odd game here or there, but we’ll keep working hard and keep doing what we’re doing.

“Hopefully we’ll still be in a good position come the end of the season.”

Stam took little time to adjust to his role with the Royals after replacing Brian McDermott last summer.

The 44-year-old Dutchman recruited no fewer than 13 new signings, many of whom have become first-team regulars such as Roy Beerens, John Swift, Joey van den Berg and Liam Moore.

He has also promoted a number of academy graduates like Liam Kelly, Dominic Samuel and Tennai Watson and appears to have found the ideal blend of youth and experience.

The last time the Royals spent the Christmas week in the top three was in the 2008-2009 season after they had amassed 49 league points. However, that season ended in bitter disappointment when Reading crashed out of the play-offs to now Premier League side Burnley.

Nevertheless, Reading have shown a huge improvement on their position exactly 12 months ago when they sat in 11th place with 10 fewer points, having just sacked Steve Clarke.

McDermott eventually took over, but Royals finished the season in a lowly 17th, just two places higher than 19th the season before.

There appears little chance of a repeat this season, and McShane is eager to pick up another three points against the Canaries on Monday.

“It’s never going to be easy – this league is a battle week in, week out,” warned the 30-year-old defender.

“We’ve got to be up for it and ready for anything. It’s always a good atmosphere on Boxing Day and we’ve got a little break this week where we can get ourselves together and prepare for Norwich who are a good team with good players.

“They’ve had a bit of a dip in form recently, but they have the capability of hurting us, like so many teams in this division.”

The Republic of Ireland international also quipped: “We’ll have loads of Christmas turkey, gravy and stuffing and be absolutely stuffed on Boxing Day – not really, only joking!

“We’ll have to be careful over Christmas as footballers. It’s the season to be indulgent for so many but it’s key that we have that discipline to not do that sort of stuff.

"We’ll get ourselves ready for another tough test, and let’s see what happens.”