Jaap Stam feels Reading were the better team after being held to a goalless draw by Sheffield Wednesday.
Neither goalkeeper was seriously tested throughout the drab affair with Sone Aluko and Mo Barrow going closest for the Royals, while Wednesday’s Lucas Joao squandered the best chance.
But Stam believes his side controlled the contest.
Here is what he had to say to the media after the game, including an update on John Swift’s injury.
On the game…
I think we did well. We played well and created opportunities. For the majority of the game we dominated I think. We always needed to be aware of their counter attack. You could see that plan, sitting deep, waiting to win that ball and then knocking it over the top, hopefully for Joao to run at goal.
I think we defended that well, didn’t give anything away. I don’t know if they had even one or two chances to be honest. Sometimes it looks threatening if the ball goes in front of goal but I don’t think they were near to finish it. I think we had a couple of good opportunities, with Mo, with Sone, with Dave (Edwards) I believe. The only thing that we didn’t do today is scoring that goal.
On Mo Barrow’s chances at the end…
I think Bacuna touched it a little bit before that which is maybe why it deflected a little bit. Sone had a very good opportunity first half at the beginning, Mo at the end and I think Dave was close. Against a team like that it’s difficult to create opportunities because
especially second half they were sitting even more deep at times. But we still created opportunities and played some very good football, but you need to score to get the three points. Everybody is aware of that.
The players are of course disappointed that you don’t get a win. You can always say you deserve more, but that’s football. It’s difficult to say you deserve it if you don’t get it. The last few weeks have been the same, dominating and creating opportunities but we could and perhaps should have done better.
On a point and a clean sheet…
Of course you can say a point is good. You can say against a team like Sheffield Wednesday it’s good and you need to be happy and of course we are happy with a point and a clean sheet as well. But we’re always looking for a win. In how we play, we’re always going for a win. You’ve never seen us dropping in deep and waiting for that moment to come out on the break. That’s a strategy of teams and I know that, I understand it, but we think differently. We want to have possession, go forward and try to create opportunities and score goals. The only thing we need to do is score these goals.
On John Swift’s injury…
It’s probably going to be a couple of weeks. He has a problem with his hamstring. It’s not that bad that he’s out for months, but we need to be careful. Swifty was feeling very fit before the game against Bolton. But that one moment he overstretched his leg. We are always looking how is that possible, but we can’t find an answer.
On Sam Smith’s injury…
Sam is not back yet. He is having treatment. He’s feeling a lot better, he’s walking normal but to go out on the pitch and before he’s back in training is going to take several weeks probably.
