Royals number two Dillon suggested they have the easiest game of the four sides still fighting for survival and spelled out his confidence a win at Pride Park will be enough to keep them up, adding: "Let's put it this way, if we can't beat Derby, it will be hard to take."

But the comments have infuriated Jewell, who said: "Kevin Dillon's comments lack tact. You would think Reading had been playing Champions League all these seasons instead of down in the Championship and the Second Division where Derby and Wigan also came from."

Steve Coppell's side travel to Pride Park knowing even a victory may not be enough to prevent them joining the Rams in the Coca-Cola Championship next season as a Fulham victory over Portsmouth would almost certainly send them down.

But Jewell added: "At Derby this year we've been sneered at, we've been laughed at, we've been ridiculed and I can accept it after the season we've had - but for Reading to say things like that is not right.

"People can have an opinion but it's the way you put your opinion across. If they can't beat us and they go down then they deserve to go down, Kevin Dillon is quite right.

"So I think Kevin Dillon might have been quite right to think it but to say it was quite wrong.

"It is something I would never do - make a comment about someone else's team unless it's positive."

In fact, the County manager insists Dillon's outburst could work in his side's favour and revealed it has already been a topic of discussion in the Derby dressing room.

"The lads have been speaking about it and if I was Reading, who do you want to come to last game of the season? A side that have won once at home all season - but it's a dangerous game they're playing," Jewell added.



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