I saw football from the other side at the weekend - and it was an amazing experience.

With Reading not having a game, I went up to the Manchester derby with Kyle Lightbourne and a few friends.

I was offered a box but I wanted to sit with the City fans and although I was wearing a hat it didn't take long before I was recognised.

Once one guy spotted me and shouted ‘Feed the Goat', that was that - I pretty much had my hands full afterwards with signing autographs and chatting to the fans.

But it really was an amazing experience sitting with the City faithful.

When you are out on the pitch, you block out some of the noise and try to just concentrate on what you are doing. If you can't hear the cheers, then you are not going to hear the boos.

You try and protect yourself from what you hear, to a certain extent.

But being with the fans was such a different experience. It's something I have always wanted to see, and it is a shame I didn't get the chance to do it at Maine Road.

When you are a footballer, these are the people you represent. They work hard all week, and some of them travel miles and miles to get there, and they just want to come out and express their emotions, sometimes good, sometimes, bad - you are theirs, you are representing them, their manor.

They kick every kick and head every header, they are just willing the ball into the net.

To sit in the crowd at a game in England really is an amazing thing, the passion is fantastic.

If a youngster goes along to a game, you can see why they would want to go back week after week.

It is a shame that in this game we didn't get a goal they could really cheer about. It would have been something special to be sitting with them while an equaliser was scored or a last-minute winner - but it wasn't to be.

City were well behind at three down by the time they got their first and even though everyone started singing ‘we are going to win 4-3', United went down the other end and made it four.

The chants of ‘we are going to win 5-4' started. The banter among the fans is fantastic, you find yourself wanting to join in when they sing ‘United are the pride of Singapore'.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.

There was a part of me that missed the big occasion, I was out on the field last year for the derby, but that is always going to be the case when you drop down the divisions.

You want to test yourself at the highest level, that is how it is, and you do miss the big games.

And that is what we are going for at Reading. I am not there just to play out my time, I am there because I believe we can get promoted and will be able to play in big games week in, week out.

That is what we are striving for at Reading and I am still confident we can get into the play-offs and achieve that.

* * * *

IT has been pretty intense at Reading this week, not having a game.

We trained very hard all week and by the time Saturday came around and they gave us the weekend off, I was pretty tired.

I thought to myself ‘thank God that is over with'. There is a time and a place in football for a bit of old-fashioned running . . . and throw in the weight-training and it can be pretty tough.

We have a double session today but then things will taper off towards the end of the week so that we have plenty of energy for the weekend's game.

I'm looking forward to getting back into it again and we just have to aim to get back to winning ways after the disappointment of the Rotherham defeat.