Nigel Adkins: 'Reading players are up for fighting relegation'

Reading manager Nigel Adkins has insisted that the players have the right mentality to snatch Premier League survival.

The Royals are at the bottom of the table, seven points away from retaining their top-flight status.

Tomorrow, the Liverpool-born coach will come up against his former club Southampton, who sacked him from his post after two-and-a-half years in January.

"You won't be in our dressing room if you think it is a lost cause," BBC Sport quotes Adkins as saying. "The opposition are in a good vein of form but we are at home. We have to get the three points at the weekend. It is very close down there. We need to get some victories under our belt."

The Royals have seven games remaining in their campaign.