Reading boss Paul Ince called the fixture list "unfair" after having to face six fixtures in two weeks.

With a winter World Cup in Qatar coming up in November and December, more fixtures have been fitted in ahead of schedule- with most Saturday's and midweek's now taken up with matches.

To add to fixture woes, injuries continue to hamper a thread-bare Royals squad, on top of EFL embargoes and FFP contraints.

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Talking to the media before a trip to the Den to face Millwall, Ince vented: "It's tough, we’ve got such a small squad at the moment. It's six games in two weeks, it's actually unfair. The EFL have crammed in so many games, probably because of the World Cup. It's the same for every team in the Championship, but some have a squad of 25. But for us we’re relying on more or less the same players."

Despite seemingly the world against them, Reading have picked up a very respectable nine points in their first five matches, sitting third in the division.

A week remains in the transfer window and players are slowly returning to fitness, with the future looking brighter than it has done in RG2.

Speaking on the trip to London, and a longer trip to Yorkshire to face Sheffield United on Tuesday, Ince added: "I expect Millwall and Sheffield United to be up there in the play-off places, but we don’t fear anybody. 

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"Just go and play football, be competitive and see where it takes you. We've got to enjoy it, keep going because every team will have a bad patch. But while we are doing ok we need to keep the momentum going. 

"We haven't won away yet this season so it would be nice to pick up something. The Blackpool game we should have got something out of it, especially the second half, it’s two games where we can try and pick something up."