Paul Clement says he hopes the dramatic victory over QPR will break “the vicious cycle” as Reading clinched a first win in 10 matches.
Sone Aluko’s stunning strike was enough for a 1-0 win, but Royals had goalkeeper Vito Mannone to thank for a stoppage time penalty save after Yann Kermorgant had also been sent off.
Here is what Clement said to the media after the game –
On a perfect start to his reign…
I’m most pleased for the players and the fans. The fans showed up in numbers today. It was a miserable day weather wise, that can often keep supporters away but they turned out, got behind their team, big noise at the end of the game and especially when the penalty was saved.
But obviously very pleased for the players because they’ve had a difficult time this year. I know what it’s like to be involved in a team when you don’t get the results and the confidence goes and you’re not playing well, it’s a vicious cycle. Hopefully we’ve broken that cycle now. We dug in, it was a scrappy performance at times but it was full of passion, fight and we got over the line in the end.
On Mannone’s penalty save…
I thought the goal was worthy of being a match-winner in itself, so that a big moment and then obviously the save at the end was a big moment. I’m actually disappointed it got to that point. Not because of how the game went but more the nature of how that penalty came about. Mo Barrow has gone in for a challenge with the centre-half, I thought it was a foul on Barrow but the ref gave it the other way. Alright that can happen, but then the player was down injured, I think the referee has guessed whether he’s hurt or not hurt, he could’ve easily been hurt so you’ve got to stop the game, you’ve got to see if the player’s OK. No he didn’t and they spotted the ball and played.
At that point we also had a man sent off, so we’re defending with nine, 11 v 9 at that point and sod’s law it’s a penalty kick and they get that massive chance at the end. But brilliant save and we got the three points that we needed, we wanted, that I wanted, that all the fans wanted.
On the two yellow cards for Kermorgant…
I didn’t see the first one. The second one, very harsh. He’s miscontrolled the ball, it’s bounced off him and I think he’s gone to try and recover and I think there were worse things in the game that went unpunished. I think the second yellow, having not seen the first one, was very harsh.
On if he felt like it would be his day after the last-ditch defending…
I never really think like that when the game’s going on, have I got the luck or have we got the luck, I just try to see if I can help in any way with some information or some changes. It was unbelievable the amount of blocks we put in and the amount of tackles. That comes from people being in the right positions, being compact, being narrow, being solid.
It certainly wasn’t a perfect defensive display but I think it’s been a while since the team has had a clean sheet so that’s good. I would’ve taken 1-0 before the game, no doubt.
On if it was more backs to the wall than he’d have hoped…
I’m not surprised that that happened. I think we probably played our best football up to the goal and including the goal. That was our best part of the game and after that we went too deep.
I think it’s normal for a team that has been struggling, haven’t got the results, that human mentality is defend, defend now. We’ve got in front, defend that and we went deep so the spaces became bigger for them and they looked like they had more control of the game. That was something we spoke about at half-time, I know why you’re doing it but don’t sit, try to get up to people and apply the pressure we need.
On what he said to Sone Aluko this week to improve his performance…
Nothing specifically about how he’s played and what we need to do, just some clear instructions. We know he’s good at going inside on his left foot, thought he did some really nice things in the game and that will be a big help for him I’m sure.
On if this could be a big moment in keeping Reading up…
We knew going into the game being a 5:30 kick-off what had happened in the other games. We used it for some motivation. Football sometimes gives you these days when you can have a momentum shift. Barnsley were ahead, they conceded late so there’s an opportunity to push ahead of them. Burton lost, Bolton lost so we couldn’t have asked for much better from the Friday fixtures. It was about taking advantage of that and we did.
On continuing this against Aston Villa on Tuesday…
Yeah it’s massive. We’ve got seven games, 21 points to play for. Yeah the gap is six between us and Birmingham but they play tomorrow. It can shorten very quickly. We’re just focussing on our games, we focussed on QPR today and now we focus on Aston Villa. Tough opponent, pushing up towards the top of the table, want to secure that play-off place and there’s still time for them to do even better than that so it’s going to be a tough game. QPR went there recently and won 3-1, why can’t we go there and get a good result?
On Liam Kelly..
Liam was sick the day before yesterday (Wednesday) so hopefully he can pull through that and we’ll see if he’s available for Tuesday.
