The Royals secured a spot in the top-flight for next season on Tuesday night with a 1-0 victory over Nottingham Forest after Mikele Leigertwood grabbed a late winner.

Their success comes almost a year after they missed out on promotion via the play-offs to Swansea at Wembley, a disappointment McDermott admits took a while to come to terms with.

But the manager believes that setback was worth it after seeing his side storm the table in the second half of the campaign and gain the ultimate reward.

Incredible

"It's been an incredible time really, the last year," he told Sky Sports. "It wasn't meant to be last year, for whatever reason.

"I suppose in a way it tests your resolve and you can see what you're about as a person and what the group are about as people and the staff.

"Losing that game at Wembley and being on that pitch; it took me a couple of months to get over that, and some. We just had to dig in and we've done that and this makes it all worthwhile.

"The players deserve so much credit, our staff deserve so much credit. I'm just so pleased that we've secured promotion tonight."

Reading have garnered a remarkable 46 points from a possible 51 in the second half of the season and McDermott believes that run speaks volumes about his players.

He said: "It says everything about this group of players, to get on a run like that. But it's not just about the last 17 games, it's about the last 30-odd.

"If you look at the run and how many points we've accumulated over that time, we've won in all sorts of different ways."

McDermott is looking forward to preparing for life in the Premier League but for now is content to enjoy Tuesday night's success with his squad.

Exciting

"It's an exciting time, but that's not for tonight," he said. "It's about the players that we've got. The players we've got here are fantastic and I believe they can all play in the Premiership.

"We can enjoy tonight, it's about enjoying ourselves.

"It's difficult to enjoy yourself as a manager because you're always looking ahead to the next game.

"We have to look at our next game against Crystal Palace, we have to do the best we possibly can in that game and try and win it and we'll look forward to it."