HAPPY New Year to all ‘loyal Royals,’ and didn’t we have an eventful week to bring us into 2017?

Before our thrilling comeback at Bristol City, we had the confusing and controversial abandonment of our home fixture against Fulham.

Royals supporters were desperate to see their side avenge the 5-0 thrashing at Craven Cottage at the beginning of December, only for the referee to call it off at half time due to thick fog.

Nevertheless, our performance at Ashton Gate on Monday filled me with confidence.

My initial excitement soon faded when the in-form Tammy Abraham immediately pressured our defence into making mistakes by chasing every loose ball.

The on-loan Chelsea striker was a formidable presence right from the off and scored when Ali Al-Habsi, arguably our best player in 2016, gave the ball away to City’s Joe Bryan. Bryan’s shot was palmed into the path of Abraham who converted a simple tap-in.

Reading looked the side most likely to score before Abraham’s goal after 28 minutes. Stam’s side pressed for an early opener with Danny Williams, John Swift and Garath McCleary all registering shots on goal.

Reading went in at the break a goal behind despite Williams fluffing what seemed to be a decent chance after some impressive work by Yann Kermogant.

Then on the stroke of half-time Kermogant slammed a powerful header against Frank Fielding’s crossbar from a Tyler Blackett cross.

After half-time, Blackett made a very clumsy challenge on Bristol’s Callum O’Dowda inside the area.

The defender’s tackle was reminiscent of non-league striker attempting to defend and unsurprisingly Blackett was replaced by Jordan Obita shortly afterwards.

Referee Roger East was quick to award the resulting penalty and Abraham comfortably put it away.

Swift, fresh from injury, was unlucky not to equalise when he saw his free-kick fly off target and he too was soon replaced by Liam Kelly.

Kelly, 21, recently signed a new contract keeping him at the Madejski Stadium until 2019.

He celebrated by scoring his first goal for the club within six minutes of entering the pitch.

The 21-year-old then set up Kermogant's equaliser with four minutes to go and, with Royals supporters screaming for a winner, the Frenchman duly obliged in injury time to seal a memorable comeback.

The crazy victory shows how har far Reading have come.

Jaap Stam's men are brimming with confidence, passion and team spirit.

Last year Royals were a side lacking in winning mentality and the necessary fight.

Make no bones about it, this is now a race for promotion and anything less than the play-offs will be a huge disappointment.

So now on to our big FA Cup trip to Old Trafford tomorrow.

Stam will return to his old club in search of a major upset and is expecting United manager José Mourinho to select a strong side.

My journey to Manchester starts at 6.30am in the hope of avoiding the traffic problems experienced by many fans on their way to Bristol.

Here’s looking forward to writing about a traditional David versus Goliath win over United!