Jose Gomes says Reading cannot relax until they are mathematically safe after 0-0 draw against West Bromwich Albion.
The Royals picked up a valuable point at the Madejski Stadium against West Brom as their Championship survival was all but confirmed.
Reading are now six points above the relegation zone with two matches remaining and with the buffer of a far superior goal difference on relegation rivals Rotherham United.
Here’s what Jose Gomes said:
on today’s game…
First of all it was a fantastic game. If I was watching this game from the stands not knowing which team was fighting from the bottom and which team was fighting for promotion, I would think that Reading was fighting for promotion. My players showed strong personality and character, we tried to make good combinations to score.
on the fantastic atmosphere…
It was a fantastic atmosphere in our stadium, again our fans did very very well with important support for us. Our fans were fantastic from the beginning, a lot of noise supporting our players so I’m very pleased for that.
on the early changes…
changing two players after 12 minutes and also Blackett’s injury, it was difficult to manage the game from the bench in this situation but the positive thing was the players that came from the bench did very well and showed good energy like all of the team and I think we deserved the three points in today’s game.
If Reading are safe from relegation…
We are not finished, my experience in football says that if it is not mathematically safe then we cannot relax and we must keep the same energy and same mentality until the end of the season because it’s important for now and for next season. its a professional thing, lots of people love reading so we must respect this so we cannot relax even one second.
We always want more and more and more, we want to be 100% sure that we will be playing in the Championship next season.
Reaction from the players at full time…
The players can relax and celebrate a bit but we do have training tomorrow so we must keep the focus. It’s not likely to happen but it can happen so we must protect and finish and then we can really celebrate. So for now I don’t agree if anyone says we can celebrate.
On results from elsewhere…
I didn’t want to know the other results during the game because I wanted to win the game and sometimes if you open the space of that influence, things can change. I wanted to win and we created chances where we could have won and conceded some shots from outside the box that hit the post, but we created more goal scoring situations than them.
Injuries to Oliveira and Meite…
the players that replaced them did well. It’s a pity for them and the team, Nelson did a big effort to be with the team and he ran against the doctors advice and tried to play after a hamstring injury but the doctor said to finish the season. he found a way to recover quickly to come and help us so I really feel for him.
The same happened with Meite but we will see the medical report but it will be very difficult for both of them to play the next game. Meite got a hamstring injury.
How proud he is of the club…
I feel that I’m part of the family, I feel the way that we’ve grown as a family. the more people in the stadium, the more noise. better relationships between the players, better relations between everyone inside the club. the football is played by footballers with feelings and emotions and emotionally I think definitely we are stronger than before. when we have good people working for the same thing and the same result, you get the results.
On next season…
We have people with good quality fighting for the same targets. We just have a small thing about the financial fair play that we need to resolve and until then we don’t know where we can go considering this important issue.
