Paul Clement says he expects Saturday’s clash with fellow strugglers Ipswich Town at Madejski Stadium to be Reading’s “hardest game of the season”.
Despite beating Bristol City last weekend, the Royals sit alongside Ipswich in the Championship relegation zone but are five points clear of the Tractor Boys, who replaced their manager Paul Hurst with Paul Lambert last month.
Ipswich picked up a point in Lambert’s first game in charge with a 1-1 draw against Preston North End last weekend and Clement expects them to come to the Mad Stad motivated.
“I’ve watched the game against Preston and you can see (Lambert’s) animation on the side and how much he’s driving them,” said the Royals boss.
“We have to expect a really fired up Ipswich on Saturday.
“I think this is a very complicated game, really complicated because if I think, if the players think and if the fans think this is going to be easy, they’re wrong.
“It’s a team that has struggled and only won one this season, but they’re fighting for their football lives, like we are.
“That makes it a very, very hard game. A new manager, he’s had another week to work with the team. He got a draw in his first game, him and the team are really going to be searching for their first win and I think this is going to be a very, very difficult game.
“I think we should expect our hardest game of the season.”
He added: “We have an opportunity to have back-to-back wins, which I believe it’s been a long, long, long time since that’s happened.
“I would think if we get the win we would be out of the relegation zone. We’ve been in it for a few weeks now so that would be good.
“I don’t think it’s so important that the opposition is Ipswich or whether we were playing Sheffield United or Leeds, it’s about our situation and doing the best we can at home to get that result.”
Speculation has continued this week over Clement’s job with former Swansea City boss Francesco Guidolin the latest to be linked after Steve Bruce’s name was thrown into contention following his departure from Aston Villa.
But Clement insists those rumours do not bother him.
“It doesn’t make me uncomfortable,” he said.
“I think I’m in a privileged position. I’m the manager, I’m very grateful to be the manager and I’m going to keep working hard to be the manager and that’s it.
“When results don’t go very well there’s always speculation about first of all your job and then hand in hand with that comes who will be the potential options. It’s normal.”
Check back to wokingham.today later for The Tilehurst End Weekend Preview podcast with Tom Crocker and Olly Allen, looking ahead to the Ipswich game.
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