Albion defender Gianni Zuiverloon has banished memories of his Reading nightmare as he prepares for Saturday’s FA Cup rematch with the Royals.

The Dutchman is in line to play against the Championship outfit in Saturday’s third-round tie, after being recalled by boss Roberto Di Matteo to help with the defensive crisis at the Hawthorns.

And Zuiverloon is adamant he will not be haunted by memories of last season’s fiery fifth-round clash, when he made errors in the original game and the Hawthorns replay as the Baggies slid out of the Cup.

He said: “I don’t think about the past, I just think about the future.

“That’s done now and it’s a whole new game and new year. The first couple of days of the new year are going well for me.

“It won’t be in the back of my mind – not at all. I’m going there very confident and I won’t think about what happened.

“I’m feeling good now.”

Zuiverloon’s error from kick-off in the original game at the Madejski Stadium allowed Jimmy Kebe to score in the opening seconds.

After Albion had salvaged a 2-2 draw from that match, the Dutchman had a nightmare night in the replay as the Royals won 3-2 to reach the quarter-finals, where they gave Villa a fright before bowing out.

But Zuiverloon is in line to play after a solid display as a makeshift central defender at Fulham on Tuesday and believes Albion are still favourites for the match despite a run of five successive defeats in the Premier League.

He said: “Why not?. Just because we’ve lost five games doesn’t mean we’re a lesser team now. We’re still a good team and we’re playing well.

“I think we should win the game against Reading.”

The tie will provide the Baggies with a welcome distraction from their current Premier League struggles but the match is likely to carry its own tension, after the highly-charged meetings between the teams last season.

The first cup match saw Albion lose Youssouf Mulumbu to suspension and Gonzalo Jara to a season-ending broken foot, before the replay ended in an ugly confrontation between Royals players and Hawthorns stewards.

But Zuiverloon, just back from a loan spell at Ipswich, added: “A game is a game and whether it’s the league or cup you just want to win every game.”