Manager Brian McDermott has hailed the character and quality his team have shown to put them in a great vein of form and make the Royals a force to be feared for any opponent in the Coca-Cola Championship.

The Royals have just come through a run of five successive home games, winning all four League matches and losing valiantly to Aston Villa in the quarter final of the FA Cup, concluding our best run in the competition in 83 years.

With Brian leading the way, we have won more home league games in the last 18 days than we could manage in the whole of 2009, when we won just three out of 24 league fixtures at Madejski Stadium.

It marks an incredible turnaround for McDermott's men, and the manager is keen to maintain the team's form as we prepare for an away trip at Middlesbrough this weekend.

Brian said, "The players have shown real character and they are bringing that to the fore. You can't create character, you either have it or you don't and this group of players have it.

"You can see they just want to win games, be it at home or away from home and the character keeps coming through."

A few months ago, a run of 12 unbeaten home games in all competitions would have seemed hugely unlikely, but Brian and his team have made Madejski Stadium a fortress.

Brian said, "We've had a couple of home games when the opposition have gone down to ten men and defended deep but we've found a way through.

"If you look back at Tuesday, Gylfi has shown terrific ability to go past two men and then he was brought down - showing terrific coolness to put the penalty right in the top corner.

"A few months ago we couldn't have done what we did on Tuesday and I was so proud of the players.

"The supporters want to see us win, we are all in it together and they will have gone away happy on Tuesday evening.

"Now we look to Middlesbrough and it's another big game. Tuesday was a big one and I enjoyed it, I felt beforehand it would be tasty with Neil [Warnock] on the sidelines.

"We always look to the next game and that is the most important one. We'll go up to 'Boro and look forward to it"

Four minutes of video highlights from Tuesday's game are available now on Reading FC Player - sign up for a 14-day free trial to get complete access!