Reading manager Mark Bowen has spoke about the club's first week off since the turn of the year.

The festive period always brings plenty of football, and the following weeks bring just as much - since New Year's Day Reading have played 13 games but this week, they don't have a midweek game to prepare for.

"It’s important to manage this week well, balancing the rest and the work on the training ground we do," Bowen told www.readingfc.co.uk. "The league is challenging which we all know, but it is how we cope this week that will determine the Leeds game and further."

"After the Leeds game, we have five games in just over two weeks, so we go right back into it," explained Bowen. "But it’s good to get that respite, both mentally and physically."

"It’s hard for the staff and the players - I’ve moaned about not having enough time on the training ground! But I still have that decision on how much we do on the training ground and how much time off they get."

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Reading currently sit in 15th-place of the Championship table, dropping down slightly since the turn of the year. After the Leeds game, Reading face three of the bottom-four teams and travel to struggling Birmingham too.

It'll be a key run of fixtures in Reading attaining an unlikely top-half spot in Bowen's first half-season at the club.

The verdict

Bowen has so far done well to take Reading out of the relegation fight, and into a position where they can look further up the table.

They performed well at the weekend, not like a team who've played 13 games in a month-and-a-half and hold themselves in good stead for the visit of Leeds this weekend.