THE dream of promotion to the Premier League is still very much alive for Reading FC – and Liam Moore insists they could ‘do a Leicester City’ if they pull it off.

Moore was on the Foxes’ books last season when they won the title under former boss Claudio Ranieri before his summer move to the Royals.

The 23-year-old has now become a mainstay of Jaap Stam’s Royals side who sit fifth in the Championship and look certain to claim a play-off spot.

And if Reading manage to seal their top-flight return after a five-year absence, Moore believes they will be a force to be reckoned with.

“We want to push ourselves and we want to be in the Premiership, if we need to do that through the play-offs then we need to take our chance,” said Moore, who limped out of Tuesday night’s 0-0 draw with leaders Newcastle with a hamstring injury.

“When I signed there wasn’t much optimism about where we would finish this season.

“After spending a couple of days here I knew relegation wasn’t something we needed to worry about even though on the outside people were saying Reading escaped the drop two years in a row before that.

“It helps when you have a fresh slate, a new manager and lots of new signings. There was lots of change.

“A few boys are still hurting from the previous years, but we have such a good core of players now.

“Some people said in the past they have been guilty of taking it a bit easy, but now we are working together and anything is possible.

“Everyone saw it in the Premier League with Leicester last season and we wouldn’t be too far off that story if we managed to creep into the Premier League or the play-offs this year because nobody expected it of us.”

Reading Chronicle:

Liam Moore tackles Wolves skipper David Edwards during last weekend's 2-1 win at Madejski Stadium.

Royals remain fifth in the Championship table after Tuesday’s 0-0 home draw against Newcastle United and maintained their seven-point lead over Fulham in seventh.

Stam’s men now face successive away trips to Preston this Saturday (3pm ko) then play-off rivals Sheffield Wednesday the following Friday before a fortnight’s international break, with fourth-placed Leeds United to come after that.

“We have 10 very important games left,” stressed Moore. “The play-offs are the aim, we need to do it in a style which is going to help us maintain what we do into those three cup finals.

“I’m confident, I have been like that for a long time. I’ve seen the quality of the players and I don’t think we should be a team which just settles for mid-table.”

Stam will be hoping the extent of Moore’s hamstring injury is not too serious after he limped off in the 50th minute of Tuesday’s stalemate.

“Hopefully it’s not too bad,” groaned Moore. “It’s the first time I’ve ever had a problem with my hamstring. There was no ‘pop’ or anything like that which is usually a good sign.

“I felt if I carried on it was going to become quite serious, the physio advised me to look after myself as we have some big games coming up.

“I’m just praying it’s not too bad. I tried to give it a run about to see if it was all right. I’m eager to carry on and play games so I didn’t want to come off.

“But there are more than enough players in the dressing room to cover.”

Stam added: “Liam has been very important throughout the season, he’s been a rock in defence.

“He brings a lot to the team and it’s a shame that he is out. We will see how bad his injury is then decide what to do.”