Nicky Shorey is looking forward to his tussle with fellow England international David Bentley against Blackburn this weekend.

The Royals left back said, "He is a top quality player, I have seen that close up - especially when we were away with England and I was training with him.

"He's a different type of player. He's clever, he's not the type who will run by you but he uses trickery and sometimes that is harder to face.

"I like playing against the best players and he is definitely one of them.

"I would put him in the same bracket as Everton's Arteta - he's a tricky player, not someone like Wright-Phillips who will just knock it and go. Bentley thinks about space a bit more.

"I probably prefer to play against people like Bentley rather than your Aaron Lennons, because anyone can get caught out with a bit of pace.

"I like to have a thinking kind of match rather than someone who is just going to knock it and go."

Nicky is confident the Royals can continue to collect the points needed to ensure Premier League survival, saying, "This season has been a bit of a slog.

"I think everyone accepted it was going to be a bit harder this season, but I think we are showing now we are more than capable of getting good results in this division.

"People made a lot of the eight defeats in a row but we didn't really pay much attention to that. We always thought we could turn it around."

The England star's contract situation has been well chronicled this season, but he says it is now firmly in the back of his mind.

He admitted, "It probably affected me earlier in the season but now I have come to a decision to put it on hold until the summer.

"Ever since we've done that I've had an upturn in my performances and I think that has helped me - just leave it and put it to one side.

"I just want to get the season out of the way and get it out of everyone's minds until the summer so we can concentrate on staying in the Premier League. We can talk about my future after that."