Former Reading midfielder, manager and now pundit- Mick Gooding- believes the Royals can challenge for the play-offs.

Gooding played over 200 times for the club in the 1990s and became manager in 1994.

A long-time pundit with BBC Radio Berkshire, the North-East native watches the club week-in, week-out alongside Tim Dellor.

Reading Chronicle:

Speaking on BBC Berkshire after the 2-0 win over Bristol City on Saturday, the club's first win in five, Gooding believes ambitions should be higher than just survival.

"If you times 25 by three it’s 75 points, I’m sure that’ll be a play-off place," he stated. "At the back end of last season, he did enough, and the team did enough, to stay in the division. I honestly thought most managers with a bit of football experience could have done that because it was so bad what went before it. This season, you’ve got to give him lots of credit because of the situation with the football club- the embargo. They’ve recruited really well, and I think they’ve given themselves a real chance of aiming for the play-offs.

Reading Chronicle:

"I totally understand he wants to play it down by saying ‘when we get to 50 points we’ll see where we are then’ but they’ve got 25 points from 16- if they’ve got 50 points with 14 games left, they’ll be right in the shout for the play-offs."

Boss Paul Ince maintains that survival is the be-all and end-all.

Speaking after Tuesday's 3-2 defeat to Swansea City, Ince said: "The remit’s to stay in the league, because we’ve got the buffer of starting the league well, we’ve got the buffer of, if we lose games, it gives you that cushion."