JOHN Swift has described tomorrow night's rearranged clash between Reading FC and Fulham as a 'massive game.'

Royals will be determined to put a run of back-to-back Championship defeats behind them when they host the Cottagers at Madejski Stadium (8pm ko).

But Fulham have been a major thorn in Reading's side already this season, having battered Jaap Stam's men 5-0 at home in early December.

The return fixture in Reading on December 30 was then evenly poised at 0-0 when referee James Linington was forced to abandon the match at half time due to heavy fog and poor visibility.

Now Swift has left fans in no doubt as to the size of the task facing Jaap Stam's Royals in the re-run.

“It is a massive game,” he declared. “Every game in the Championship is massive because everyone wants to be up there fighting to be in the play-offs and chasing everyone that’s above them.

“So it’s massive for us, and it’ll be massive for them as well.

“They showed what they can do against us last time so we've got to be 100% and go into the game like we do for every game. We know how we want to play and hopefully the result will follow.”

Reading have slipped from third in the table to fifth following Saturday's 3-2 loss at Derby County and a 1-0 home defeat to QPR before that.

Fulham, meanwhile, arrive on a three-match unbeaten run in all competitions including a 1-1 draw at QPR last weekend.

Slaviša Jokanović's side sit ninth in the table and will close the gap on Reading to just three points if they win tomorrow night's clash.

Stam will be forced to tinker with his team as Jordan Obita picked up a one-match suspension for his sending off at Derby, with Tyler Blackett likely to step in.

Swift added: “We’ll play the way we want to play and do our thing in training, and if we can take that with us onto the pitch then hopefully we can walk away with three points.

“I wasn’t out there when we played that 45 minutes against Fulham as I was on the bench that game.

“But the gaffer and his staff will put together our tactics and get us using them on the training pitch, and we’ll take that into the game.”

Reading FC is reminding supporters that they must actively redeem their free tickets if they were at the original fixture (with the exception of Season Ticket/Half Season Ticket holders) before 5pm on matchday. Tickets for the original game will be invalid.