Wembley within reach for Royals, says determined Mills

READING captain Matt Mills feels the Championship side still have unfinished business in the FA Cup this year.

The Royals have again exceeded expectations by following up last year’s quarter-final appearance with another run to the last eight.

Central defender Mills was the match-winner on Tuesday as Reading stunned Premier League Everton 1-0 in their fifth-round tie at Goodison Park.

Reading are now just one game short of Wembley for the semi-finals and Mills wants to make amends after they surrendered a 2-0 lead to crash out to Aston Villa at the same stage last year.

The 24-year-old said: “We made it our mission at the end of the Villa game. The boys were obviously disappointed and we set a challenge to go one further this year.

“We are on course, although we’ve obviously got a tough one next, but we want to go to Wembley.”

Reading will face Manchester City, who beat Aston Villa last night, for a place in the last four.

Brian McDermott’s side are hoping to travel to the national stadium more than once this season. At present an FA Cup final appearance might still seem fanciful but Reading are certainly not out of the npower Championship play-off picture.

The Berkshire club, relegated from the Premier League in 2008, are currently 10th in the table, six points behind sixth-placed Leeds with 12 games remaining.

Mills said: “The boys have been talking about how negative the press have been recently.

“We are not maybe doing as well as people think we should be in the league but at the end of the day we are in a great position and we are still in the cup. Hopefully this will turn some people’s heads and start getting us some good marks in the papers and we’ll slowly start winning games.”