IAN Harte admits he has six games left to earn a new contract with Reading.

The experienced defender's current deal expires at the end of the season and the 34-year-old has been given no indication as to whether it will be renewed.

Now, the ex-Leeds United legend has vowed to give his all over the closing weeks in a bid to win one more crack at the Premier League with promotion-chasing Royals.

"I don't know what will happen next year, I've only got six games left and my contract is up," he explained. "We will just have to be patient but as long as the team are doing well hopefully I'll be looked after.

"I've just got to focus on each game. If we get promoted and I was offered a new contract then it would be fantastic, but we just have to be patient and take it from there.

"It's out of my hands, it's up to the gaffer and staff to decide if I get that. The last thing I want to be doing is moving my family around the country again. The kids are settled in school down here and we love the area and it would be ideal.

"Sometimes in football when you get settled you are up and away again, but hopefully it doesn't happen."

Harte, a bargain �70,000 buy from Carlisle United, lost his place in the team earlier in the season when his left-back spot was taken by Joseph Mills and then Andy Griffin.

But the former Republic of Ireland international has fought his was back into the reckoning and is now first-choice again.

Few players at any level of football can match Harte's exquisite dead-ball delivery and he has also netted three times this season, including two in the last two games against West Ham and Blackpool.

But there will be no goal celebration tomorrow if he finds the back of the Leeds United net.

"I would never celebrate because I had 12 fantastic years there," he confessed. "I think out of respect, if I was to score, I wouldn't do it.

"Saying that, it would be nice to score, though I don't really care who does as long as we are winning games.

"Of course I would liked to have had a few more goals this season but the most important thing is that we are winning games. As long as I'm putting dangerous balls into the box and the lads are attacking them, we shouldn't have any problems."

And he added: "We've got six difficult games left, it's not just the one against Leeds. Teams could be fighting to get into the play-offs or playing to fight off relegation.

"But if we do what we've done in the last few games then we should have no problem."

Reading have won 10 of their last 12 Championship games and are now in pole position to clinch automatic promotion back to the Premier League, four years after they were relegated from the top flight under ex-manager Steve Coppell.

"We have to try and win every game between now and the end of the season, but the most important thing is to win your home games," argued Harte. "It will be a difficult game against a Leeds team that are up and down at the moment.

"We know they've got players who can hurt any team on their day but we're at home and, with the run that we have been on, we want to make the stadium a fortress and we've got three games that we want to win at home."

Reading's two other remaining home games are against Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace.

"We're on a great run and I think teams will be fearing playing against us," suggested Harte. "We have just got to focus on our game and not worry about them."