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Jose Gomes praised the mentality of Nelson Oliveira to return to the side so quickly after his horrific facial injury suffered less than two weeks ago.
The Portuguese striker underwent surgery for a broken nose after a collision with Tyrone Mings against Aston Villa, but came back into the side on Wednesday night at Madejski Stadium for the visit of Blackburn Rovers.
REPORT: Masked Oliveira makes hero’s return against Rovers
John Swift gave Reading a 1-0 half-time lead but Amari’i Bell looked to have rescued a point for the visitors.
However, back came the Royals to win thanks to Oliveira’s impressive 86th minute strike.
The result lifts Reading out of the bottom three.
Here is what boss Gomes had to say after the game.
On the victory…
I am happy for the three points and happy for our position in the table but we know this is just one step. We have a long way in front of us. I am happy but I have my feet on the ground. I’m not dreaming.
On Oliveira’s performance…
The three points were important for a lot of reasons. Firstly, for the three points and our position in the table. Second, it’s the first time this season we’ve collected points from four games in a row and thirdly the courage Nelson showed.
In the previous match he wanted to play but the doctor didn’t give him permission. He couldn’t be on the pitch after the difficult operation when he broke his nose in four different places. But he insisted on playing and that shows he really wants to help the team. Everybody saw what his face was like but in the short period of time he was pushing the other guys and giving them strong motivation.
We have three points in our pocket and it’s a result of the work they have been doing. The players deserved the three points but the way is to keep working.
On Oliveira demanding to play again this Saturday…
He just needs to recover and if he does that he will play.
On Oliveira’s recovery from injury…
When you feel a player full of motivation that wants to work and train then you must give him a chance.
What he showed in the game with his behaviour was amazing. This gives courage to everybody and when we finished in the changing room after, the feeling was ‘we’ve got these three points for the work we’ve been doing and for the team spirit’.
It was a very important game because it was very tough. The team spirit was very strong, even in the first half. You could say it was sloppy and we played badly but the spirit was very strong and Nelson helped to increase this spirit.
On what his team needs to avoid relegation…
The team needs to play like we have been playing.
If you look at the last six games, we have lost just one game.
We just need to keep this spirit and sometimes if the opponent gives us space to play, we will play our game. If it’s not possible to play well, we need to be intelligent and collect the maximum points that we can. That’s what we have been doing. In the last six games, we’ve lost just one. I think that’s a good thing for the future.
Regarding our style, in the second half we played more under our process. In the first half we didn’t. In the second half, playing more under our process, we created more goal situations so that means this is the way but sometimes it’s not possible because we are not playing alone and also the opponent can stop some things.
But the way that the players fight and move and tried, especially in the second half, showed to themselves that it is possible to collect three points in each game if they play like that.
On how big a part luck could play in the relegation battle…
I really believe that the luck will be always the result of the work. If you talk about one game, a final, maybe the luck can give you the cup. But when you talk about a league that you play 46 games, you cannot talk about luck. You can talk about work, spirit and in the intelligence so you cannot talk about luck in the league.
On if Reading were under more pressure tonight following results yesterday…
Maybe, but if the players felt more pressure it was a mistake because we cannot control what happened in the other pitches, we can just control what we are doing, the way that we are training and what we do during the game. If we lose our energy trying to understand what happens in other stadiums and other teams, even if we are talking about direct opponents, we are losing energy with things that you cannot control.
Our focus must be 100% in the things that we can control.
On the team spirit he’s creating compared to how it was before he arrived…
We cannot lose energy thinking about what happened in the past. The past is the past, we cannot change it.
What we have in front of us is a fantastic group of players with a very good team spirit that today showed very good things with regards to the team spirit. With this team spirit we must make steps like we did today. Today we made just one step and we must be realistic and we cannot think that now it’s done and we are in a safe position because it’s not enough.
We have a lot of games in front of us and we must keep our focus 100% in the next matches.
On the injury absentees…
McCleary is not injured, that was just my option. Andy (Rinomhota) was injured in the previous game, he twisted his ankle. We will see tomorrow how he is.
