Hunty, Derby is obviously a big game.
Yes, it's a big game. Unfortunately our destiny is out of our hands now though. The league table doesn't lie, but we still have a good chance of getting out of trouble.

Anything could happen on the day?
It would have been nice to have one or two other teams close to us but obviously it's now going to come down to us, Birmingham and Fulham. Fulham have been very good in the last three or four weeks, and credit to them for the way they've played to get themselves out of the relegation zone. But it's not over yet, they will be under tremendous pressure to go to Portsmouth and get a result, and we just have to win our game at Derby and hope for the best.

Not only have Reading not been getting results, but teams around you have been winning too.
Yes, Fulham were dead and buried about six weeks ago. But they've got a difficult game and I'm sure Portsmouth will try hard to get a result. No player crosses the white line looking to play badly and being happy to lose - there's an awful lot of winners in that Pompey team.

There are so many permutations on the day. How do you keep that out of your mind?
You train hard all week and once you cross the line there's nothing else on your mind. You have to just play your game and win your match first. If we beat Derby it takes Birmingham out of the equation, and that's all we can do.

You won't be told results by the coaches or manager during the game, but presumably you'll hear what's going on if the fans have their transistor radios.
Yes. The fans will play a big part and we'll know by their reaction how things are going. But like I said, all we can control is our result. We'll see what happens.

What about Derby - they can't avoid setting a record for the lowest ever Premier League points total. Will they be dangerous opposition or are they really the worst team in the history of the league?
All I'd say on that is that we must remember our home game against Watford from last season. They came to us on the final home game of the season already relegated. We just needed a result and it turned out a draw would have been enough for us to take a UEFA Cup place. Watford played with freedom and beat us on our own ground, no-one had predicted it. It's the same situation with Derby this weekend and we must not take them lightly at all. They are capable of beating us and we are capable of beating them.

We've not scored many goals lately, but during the second half against Spurs we were much better going forward, that must be encouraging.
Yes, we've had a mixture. Earlier in the season we were conceding too many and scoring plenty and now we've gone the other way - we are tighter at the back but not scoring too many. That's the sign of a team at the bottom, that's what we are and where we are at the moment. Hopefully we can get a couple of goals.

Is the mood still upbeat?
It's very difficult times, of course. But you come into training on a sunny day and have a good training session and you tell yourself there's a lot of worse things you could be doing in life. Reading has come a long way in the last few years and we hope to continue to progress.

For you, you got player of the season last week.
It was nice to get that award. I said in the matchday programme for Spurs that I still feel I can do better. You never want to stand still in your career, you need to keep moving forward and hopefully we'll get the result this weekend. I was proud to win it and I have a nice framed picture of myself scoring against Everton. That was nice. I'll have that with me for the rest of my life. You can't beat happy memories and that's exactly what it would be.

You've come a long way in the last few years.
It's been a plus for me, the last couple of years. But you look at the best players in the world and the best in the Premier League. They've all had plusses, but they keep going and become consistent Premier League players. Hopefully I can continue to do that.