JAAP STAM says he is “very proud” of his players after Reading jumped up to third in the Championship table with a 2-1 win over Ipswich Town.
In a game of three penalties, Royals took the lead on the stroke of half-time through Garath McCleary only for Brett Pitman to level five minutes after the restart.
And that was how it stayed until the fifth minute of injury time when Danny Williams kept his cool to dispatch a spot kick past Bartosz Bialkowski after Joey van den Berg was brought down by Jonas Knudsen.
REPORT: Williams bags dramatic penalty winner as Reading see off Ipswich
The win takes Reading, albeit temporarily, up to third in the table ahead of the Saturday fixtures with 10 points from their six games so far.
And while Stam feels it is too early to check out the standings, he is pleased with what he has seen since arriving at the club earlier this summer.
“We don’t always look at the table,” said Stam.
“We know as a club, the owners, myself, technical director and staff that we don’t have a target this season of winning the league or getting into the play-offs.
“Of course you want to end up as high as you can.
“That’s normal because you need to win games.
“Football is all about results.
“But in how we’ve played and what we’ve done over the last couple of months, with a lot of new players and a totally different way of playing within the squad, I told the players after as well that I am very proud of them and what they’ve shown.”
The game hinged on three controversial penalty decisions, all of which Ipswich boss Mick McCarthy felt were harsh, and Stam also feels the referee might have made a mistake.
Reading were given their first spot kick when Tyler Blackett’s cross struck the hand of Gavin Ward from close range on the corner of the penalty area.
Blackett was then penalised for a push on Pitman before the dramatic stoppage time incident saw Knudsen booked for holding van den Berg at a corner.
“The first penalty you can give it because it is a handball,” said Stam.
“He is not going deliberately towards the ball with his hand but if the ball passes the player maybe it gets to one of our players within the box and maybe he can score.
“So that is probably why he made the decision to give it.”
He added: “I think the second one, their equaliser, wasn’t a penalty at all.
“But because of maybe the situation and some comments made towards the referee, he made the decision to give it.
“I think our second penalty was a penalty because they held Joey and that’s why he went down.”
