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CHRIS GUNTER says it is down the players to turn around the club’s slump in results as managerless Reading travel to face Preston North End tomorrow (3pm kick-off).
The club are still searching for a new boss following the dismissal of Steve Clarke last Friday on the back of a run of just one win in eight matches.
And Gunter admits he was sad to see the Scot go.
“To see good football people lose their jobs is never nice,” he said.
“Certainly as a player under a manager that played me pretty much every week it’s certainly not nice.
“I think he’s a very good manager and I think on the whole he did a good job.
“This club was in a difficult situation when he took over and things have settled down.
“It’s not nice but it’s not nice when anyone does because people have families and stuff like that and football people want to work in football so it’s never nice.”
Despite Clarke losing his job as a result of the club’s slide from 2nd to 11th in the Championship table, Gunter says he and the rest of his team-mates need to look at where they are going wrong themselves.
He said: “Of course the manager makes decisions and that’s what he’s paid to do but ultimately as soon as that whistle goes, you’ve got 11 guys there that are solely responsible for what happens over the course of the game.
“There always has to be a certain amount of responsibility.
He added: “You need to look at yourself in the mirror and say what can I do?
“And regardless of if a manager has been sacked or not, we’re not on a good run.
“We need to get back to where we were because we’re all part of the one thing here and it affects every single person.
“You all fall under the name of Reading Football Club.”
Royals sit six points and seven places above this weekend’s opponents Preston, but Gunter says the standings are almost irrelevant ahead of the clash.
“It will be a really tough game,” he said.
“I don’t think anybody that knows this league will be thinking we’re going to turn up and because we’re a places higher in the league that we’re just going to be expected to get three points.”
He added: “We’ve prepared very well like we always have been and we’ll go there with half an eye on them and half an eye on what we’re going to do because we feel we’ve got a good squad capable of causing teams problems.”
