Ending Barnsley FC season with a smile is Conor Hourihane's only focus as they head into possible League One play-off party

To their immense credit in a year of turmoil, the Royals go into the final day of the League One season still with a chance of playing in next season's Championship.

They sit outside the top six on goal difference, so know they must better Leyton Orient's result at Huddersfield Town to make the end-of-season plays-off. All games in League One and Two kick off at 3pm on Saturday so as not to give anyone an unfair advantage by knowing other results.

That means the mood at the Madejski Stadium is likely to fluctuate depending on events there and in West Yorkshire.

"Usually the fans are the ones who give you an idea of what's going on," said manager Conor Hourihane, who was still playing last season. "I was involved in one last year with Derby, heading for promotion. I've been involved in quite a few last days with something riding on it.

"We had one here before previously as well.

"It's all about us, how we're going to approach it and the mindset about it, not can we upset the party, it's not about that, it's can we finish the season off with a good result?

"It's as simple as that.

"It's more can we put in a good performance to finish the season in a good place because the game last Saturday wasn't good enough and we all know that so can we put a little smile on people's faces going into the summer?"

And there is some making up to do after finishing the home campaign with a 2-1 defeat to Shrewsbury Town.

"I was really disappointed, it was a big reality check, slap in the face, of where we are," said Hourihane.

"I was trying to address it in the right way as always, to improve and analyse it and try and get better and see where we went wrong.

"The game's going to completely different at the weekend. Shrewsbury sat back a little bit and we tried to break them down, this game's going to be much more open and frantic because of how they play and the result they need.

"From that point of view it's going to be a completely different game but there's always room to learn from every game in where we can get better.

"Reading won't be sitting behind the ball, they'll be going for it. That may change with how results are going but at the start I think they'll be all guns blazing."

On who will be available in Berkshire, he added: "Everyone's kind of in the same position. The ones we mentioned earlier on in the week that would be back training are back training.”

It could mean a return for Stephen Humphrys.