MATT Mills has set the record straight with Reading fans after his barracking at the Madejski Stadium.

It is three-and-a-half years since the defender quit the Royals for Leicester City in a move worth around £5million.

It happened just a month after Mills had scored in a play-off final defeat against Swansea City and judging by the reaction to his every touch in Saturday’s 0-0 draw is still a sore point with fans of his former club.

Mills is keen to look towards the future with Wanderers, where he currently wears the captain’s armband in Jay Spearing’s absence. In Neil Lennon’s estimation, the centre-half is also playing his best football since his Reading days and to top it off, he also became a dad for the first time at the end of last week.

But the 28-year-old first wanted to lay to rest a few ghosts with the supporters who used to hold him in such high esteem.

“When you move to another club you don’t often get a chance to tell your side of the story,” he told The Bolton News. “I haven’t wanted to say much but maybe this is a good time.

“I never, ever wanted to leave Reading. But the club have to recoup £7million every summer and it just so happened that the summer before they sold Gylfi Sigurdsson and this time it was getting to the end of the transfer window and an offer came in which they accepted.

“It’s just a shame that people didn’t know what was going on in my life at the time – I didn’t want to go at all.

“All the booing is just a bit of hoo-hah, I quite enjoy it. You have got to embrace it.”

Mills’ last trip to Reading had been a nightmarish experience as Dougie Freedman’s side were humbled 7-1.

A repeat never looked likely on Saturday and Mills was one of a handful of players who impressed in a resolute defensive performance.

“We’re a completely different outfit under the new manager,” he said of January’s horrific defeat. “In football you have got to learn to put the past behind you.

“You can see the manager has come in, wiped the slate clean, and this is Bolton now. This is what we’re judged on and what went on before is history.

“When you go away from home, your goalkeeper and the back four really has to set the tone for the front lads. You need to say ‘we’re strong today – go and express yourselves.’

“One thing I’ll say is from Craig Davies up front, Liam Feeney, Chung-Yong Lee – they work so hard.

“It is quite incredible the amount of pressure they are putting on the ball.”

Lennon called for an unbeaten run, which currently stands at five games, to be stretched into double figures over the festive period.

And Mills concedes there is only way to keep the demanding manager happy.

“Simple as, wins. It’s what we want all week,” he said.

“I think we did everything right against Reading bar put the ball in the back of the net.

“That is probably the hardest thing to do and we need to work on it.

“Once that starts coming more frequently then we can really rally and move up the table.”

On a personal level, Mills’ feet hardly touched the ground at the weekend after linking up with the team just 24 hours after his wife Jade gave birth to baby daughter, Lyla.

“It has been the best week of my life,” he said. “I went to the hospital late on Thursday night and I’d not slept since Wednesday.

“I went down to Reading on Friday and got a decent night’s sleep. Then it was a decent performance, a clean sheet, you can’t argue with that.

“It’s something I’ve wanted for a long time and I’m just so happy everything is good, the baby is healthy. It’s incredible.”