IT IS TIME THAT Reading were outed. Time that they emerged from the closet and told the world what the world has known for many weeks. That when the 2006-07 Barclays Premiership season kicks off in August, Reading will be playing in the top flight of English football for the first time in their 135-year history.

There. It has been said. No more self-denial, no more coyness when the dreaded P-word — promotion — is mentioned in the increasingly tedious aftermath of another Reading victory. Five months into the Championship season, the statistics do not lie.

Reading are unbeaten in 28 league matches. They are nine points above second-placed Sheffield United and 21 ahead of third-placed Leeds United. They have scored more goals (61) and conceded fewer (15) than any other team in the Football League and they are the only side in the Championship and Premiership not to have lost on their league travels this season.

As Chelsea canter clear of the elite, Reading are making the second tier a one-horse race. Why else would more than 22,000 gather in a stadium on a former rubbish tip next to the M4 on a grey, dreary afternoon to watch them play Coventry City? Why else would 8,000 fans purchase half-season tickets for the remainder of the campaign? Barring a choke of monstrous proportions, Reading will go up and every long-suffering Royals supporter wants to be a part of it. If only Steve Coppell, the Reading manager, and his players could offer a smidgin of excitement at their impending elevation. Caution may be wise, but there is no crime in stating the obvious.

“We just concentrate on ourselves and don’t get involved in all the debate,” he said. “All the little achievements along the way mean nothing. Sure, some of the players might talk about it, but not in front of me.”

Dave Kitson, the flame-haired striker, has done more than most to push Reading to the brink. He neatly tucked in his sixteenth and seventeenth goals of the season to snuff out the Coventry threat and the former supermarket shelf-stacker at least went close to admitting that the future appears rosy. What a tease.

“Our unbeaten run is incredible,” Kitson said. “We’ve almost forgotten what it’s like to lose. I’ve got a list of games and I’m just ticking them off one by one until someone says that we’re promoted.”

Coventry could have ended Reading’s record when, at 1-0 down, Don Hutchison and James Scowcroft forced marvellous saves from Marcus Hahnemann and Marcus Hall shuddered the crossbar. Yet Reading’s relentless up-tempo rhythm won the day and secured another three points, another tick on Kitson’s wish list and another step closer to what Micky Adams, the Coventry manager, described as the “promised land”.

“They’re not blowing their own trumpets,” Adrian Williams, the Coventry and former Reading defender, said. “But you can see how organised they are. They’ve scored the most, conceded the least and I’m delighted for them.” If Coppell and Co are keeping mum, others are not. By popular belief, Reading are up.