READING FC boss Jaap Stam believes this season's results against Fulham will have little bearing on the Championship play-offs.

Royals finished third in the table after Saturday's 4-2 victory at Burton Albion and will now face the Cottagers over two legs in the semi finals.

It finished honours even between the sides during the regular campaign, with Reading winning 1-0 at Madejski Stadium but losing 5-0 at Craven Cottage.

However, Stam insists its is wrong to read too much into the heavy defeat they suffered in West London.

“People also need to realise that we beat Fulham at home as well,” declared the Dutchman.

“Everyone knows what happened at their ground, but play-off games will be different to those in the league.

“We know all about Fulham's quality and they know about ours. They will try and find a way to make it difficult for us and we'll be trying to do the same.

“You know when you play against teams like Fulham that you have to dig in, and that's our plan.

“We're very happy with the way the season has gone but it's not over yet. It will be nice to finish it with a few more good results.”

Bracknell News:

Royals supporters took inflatables to the Pirelli Stadium as part of their end-of-season celebrations.

Despite finishing third in the table and four points ahead of fourth-placed Sheffield Wednesday, bookmakers have made Reading the outsiders to win the play-offs.

However, Stam's men will be quietly confident following four victories in their last five matches.

Their lively win at Burton last weekend was also the first time they had scored four goals in a league game this season.

Joseph Mendes and Jordan Obita put Royals 2-0 up at the break then Yann Kermorgant added a third with his 18th of the campaign and ninth in nine games.

The Brewers hit back with two goals in three second-half minutes from Ben Turner and Cauley Woodrow, but Lewis Grabban stepped off the bench to calm Royals' nerves with a fourth in the 84th minute.

Bracknell News:

Joseph Mendes celebrates his opening goal for Reading against Burton Albion.

Stam added: “It's better to go into the play-offs with a win instead of a bad result where you go home with a very strange feeling.

“I was very happy, at times it was a very open game. Burton wanted to do well in their last home match. They've had a great season with all they've achieved, but so have we.

“We bring certain qualities to the game and at time you saw that on Saturday when we scored four good goals.

“We conceded two in the second half, we gave them away too easily. But the players have done a great job overall to finish third in the league.”

Reading will now travel to Fulham this Saturday for the semi-final first leg (5.30pm ko) before hosting the Cottagers in the return leg at Madejski Stadium next Tuesday night (7.45pm ko).

Stam stated: “The play-offs are completely different to league games. Hopefully we can do well and get to the final, but before that we need to look at the first game.

“Play-offs are different in terms of our approach and what they bring which is stress and tension because the games are so important.

“But we've got nothing to lose, we are third in the league and we have done well against the other play-off teams.

“We've won and lost games, we know that, but it's all about preparing yourself for these fixtures coming up by working hard like we have all season and hopefully getting the right result.”