Brilliant season is coming to an end

Just under two weeks ago we couldn't wait to reach the points total that would guarantee promotion and now it seems none of us want this season to end.

I am convinced none of us could have ever dared wish for this to happen and I reckon only the super optimistic would have predicted even a top six finish and a place in the play-offs.

Today I looked back at the voting poll on this site ahead of the season and the question as to which clubs we thought would be up there. Had our predictions been correct then Wigan would be going up as champions and QPR as runners up. Reading, Forest, Bolton and Watford would be contesting the play offs with Leicester, like ourselves, missing out.

Jason Shackell wants to get to the 95 point mark

I bet all that voted are delighted to have been wrong, and wrong we all most definitely were, so tomorrow we travel to Reading to pull the curtain down on this season knowing that next time we are in competitive action it will be in the Premier League.

It's a tough one tomorrow with Reading chasing a play-off spot, but last Sunday, speaking on Goals on Sunday, Sean Dyche confirmed, rightly so, that we would be at full strength and would be going hard again to get another three points.

It's how he is, he knows no other way, and that way is why we are where we are right now. His players have bought into his philosophy and mantras as have the supporters who have again forced the 'sold out' sign to go up at the Turf Moor ticket office.

It's not just the manager though. I spoke to Ian Woan earlier this week at the player of the year awards night and he had nothing but praise for the players who he said were as good a group as any he'd worked with.

This season has been the first time we've had the traditional 'end of season' game after winning a promotion in 22 years, the season of Jimmy Mullen's Claret and Blue Army winning the old Fourth Division.

Ahead of this game, captain Jason Shackell has indicated just how we will approach it. "The last game is just as important as the first, as crazy as it sounds," he said.

"We want to go and win and get to that 95 point mark if we can. It's been a great year and now we want to finish strong.

"Anyone who knows the gaffer knows he wouldn't let us lose focus. His mantra has always been that we do it day in and day out, no matter what happens. As happy as we all are to get promoted, we want to win another game to finish on a high so we can look forward to going in to pre-season in good form."

Dyche brought his entire first team squad with him on Tuesday to the awards night. There were 23 of them, the 18 who were on duty against Ipswich plus the injured Sam Vokes and Luke O'Neill, Brian Stock, Danny Lafferty and Steven Hewitt.

The 18 who were on duty are likely to be tomorrow. They are: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, Scott Arfield, Dean Marney, David Jones, Michael Kightly, Danny Ings, Ashley Barnes. Subs: Alex Cisak, Chris Baird, Kevin Long, David Edgar, Ross Wallace, Junior Stanislas, Keith Treacy.

For Reading it is very simple. If they can match the result Brighton obtain at Forest then they will secure a play-off place just a year after suffering relegation from the Premier League.

Promoted in 2012 as champions ahead of Southampton and play-off winners West Ham, they had just the one season in the Premier League. They finished the season on 28 points, 11 points from safety, having won just six games during the season.

It was a season that saw them dispense with the services of Brian McDermott and replace him with Nigel Adkins who had taken Southampton up alongside them and also lost his job.

This season, Adkins' first full season in charge, they were very much one of the favourites for promotion. The lowest position they've held throughout the season is 9th and that was during the Christmas and New Year period.

Since hitting sixth place again in mid-January they've only twice dropped below it and then only for one game and only by one place.

They've never been higher than fourth and have never threatened to get into the automatic promotion places but should they miss out on a play-off place it would certainly be below what they expected this season.

For so long under the ownership of John Madejski, there is now an uncertainty over their future. Russian Anton Zingarevich bought 51% of the club at the end of their promotion season and was due to complete a full takeover in late 2013.

Things haven't worked out though. He hasn't been seen since September 2013 and is no longer funding the club. That's had such an effect that it prevented them even extending Chris Baird's contract in January which then enabled us to sign him recently when Kieran Trippier was out injured.

Madejski, who has his name splattered all over the place including the stadium, is actively looking for a buyer and he knows just how important a promotion back to the Premier League could be in finding such an investor.

But for now they need a result against us and the players have been speaking positively about their prospects.

Captain Jobi McAnuff said: "It's a massive game and we're all looking forward to it. As players, we can't wait to get out there. We want to finish the job in terms of getting in the play-offs," and he appealed to the fans: "We need you to get down there , help support the boys and help us get over the line."

Should you spot anyone playing with  a face mask tomorrow then that will be Hal Robson-Kanu. He left the field with blood gushing from his nose in their 2-0 win against Middlesbrough a week last Tuesday but are hopeful he'll be available after missing last Saturday's win at Doncaster.

They will definitely be without Danny Guthrie, Danny Williams and Jem Karacan.

Reading will, should he be passed fit, add Robson-Kanu to last week's team which was: Alex McCarthy, Chris Gunter, Alex Pearce, Sean Morrison, Jordan Obita, Garath McCleary (Michael Hector), Hope Akpan (Jake Taylor), Mikele Leigertwood, Jobi McAnuff, Adam Le Fondre (Kaspars Gorkss), Pavel Pogrebnyak. Subs not used: Adam Federici, Shaun Cummings, Nick Blackman, Gozie Ugwu.

Last Time We Were There

Burnley's last visit to Reading was, as is tomorrow's game, televised live by Sky. Played on a Friday night, Reading went into the game in 6th place in the table with the Clarets 10th just four points behind.

Reading won it with an 11th minute goal from the recently retired Jason Roberts who was booed throughout the game by the visiting fans, and yet the goal brought to an end an opening period where we were very much on top.

Ben Mee denied Reading with an incredible block

Josh McQuoid, on loan from Bournemouth, was the centre of it all in what was his best ten minutes in a Burnley shirt. He nearly converted a Kieran Trippier cross and then delivered the perfect ball for Charlie Austin whose header crashed against the bar.

Reading were struggling and a goal looked imminent. Incredibly it was at our defensive end when a ball in from their left caused some confusion between Michael Duff and David Edgar allowing Roberts to score his fifth goal against Burnley.

For the remainder of the first half we hardly caused them any concerns and we went in at half time with the 1-0 deficit and with a yellow card, incredibly shown to Ross Wallace by Darren Deadman who had a 'Deadman' game with no fewer than eight cards.

It might have been 2-0 but for the most incredible of blocks from Ben Mee. He came to Burnley with a reputation for being prepared to throw his body in the path of shots but this time, while grounded, he bravely got his head in the way as the ball dropped loose in the box.

The second half was just like the first half. We started well, should have scored, hit the woodwork and then fizzled out.

Austin missed a glorious chance in the first minute and then, from a right wing Wallace corner, Jay Rodriguez headed against the bar.

For much of the remainder of the game we had the lion's share of possession without threatening but Reading always looked dangerous on the counter.

It ended 1-0 to the home side and we left still never having won a league game at the Madejski, although, of course, we did win one very important play-off game there.

The teams were;

Reading: Adam Federici, Matthew Connolly, Kaspars Gorkss, Alex Pearce, Ian Harte, Jimmy Kebe, Jem Karacan, Mikele Leigertwood, Jobi McAnuff (Hal Robson-Kanu 80), Jason Roberts (Adam Le Fondre 76), Noel Hunt. Subs not used: Mikkel Andersen, Jay Tabb, Tomasz Cywka.

Burnley: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, David Edgar, Ben Mee, Ross Wallace, Dean Marney (Marvin Bartley 79), Chris McCann, Josh McQuoid (Danny Ings 68), Charlie Austin (Martin Paterson 68), Jay Rodriguez. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Brian Easton.

Previous Games against Reading

Click HERE to see all previous results against Reading