JAAP STAM urged the fans to be realistic about what Reading can achieve this season after Royals slumped to a 1-0 loss against Queens Park Rangers at Madejski Stadium.
Former Reading frontman Jamie Mackie netted the only goal of the contest with his 27th minute strike and the hosts could find no way back.
The smallest home league crowd of the season of 12,655 watched on as Royals tried to salvage a point with Yann Kermorgant hitting the crossbar with a second half header.
But in truth Rangers keeper Alex Smithies remained untested throughout on a poor night for Reading.
The results leaves Royals third in the Championship, six points off second placed Newcastle United.
Stam spoke to the media after the game.
On the result…
You look at their team and how they’re going to play and where can you hurt them. You see them playing against other teams 4-3-3 and going forward. Now they played 5-3-2 defensively, sitting and waiting.
It makes it more difficult for us in the way of creating chances because it’s very tight and very narrow. They defended well so credit to them for how they defended. They were waiting for that moment to get out on the break and try to score a goal and they succeeded in doing that.
You need to be patient in what you’re doing and how you play and try to create chances through the midfield in going forward. In the first half especially we played that ball too quick, too long and we spoke about that. The players have played against sides like this loads of times but it’s still very difficult.
The players worked very hard and were very disappointed. You need to play possession, you need to make the right choices at the right time. Against a team like this it’s no use in putting those balls into the box because they’ve got big strong defenders at the back and they are heading those balls out.
The couple of opportunities that you get, you need to use them and we couldn’t do that. I think on the day we just weren’t good enough to hurt them or to win this game.
On promotion hopes…
We need to be realistic. We are not there yet to say we want to win this league or that we can easily end up in the first six. We are trying to work on something over here this season and eventually hopefully get to a certain level where we can go to the Premier League. You can’t expect a team within six months to already be a contender to win the Championship or be in the top six. If it’s possible you want to do that but we need to be realistic. There are big teams in this league who can make it very difficult for us. We need to be sharp and focussed in every game to get results.
On the fans…
I’ve always told them, I’ve told everybody you need to be realistic. Sometimes we expect the fans to cheer us for 95 minutes as well but that doesn’t happen all the time. We want to win every game. We are not losing on purpose. Nobody is making a mistake or missing a chance on purpose. The fans and everybody needs to understand that as well.
On expectations…
You can’t blame anybody because if you’re successful a lot of people expect you to keep on doing that but it’s difficult. It’s easier to get there but to stay up there is a lot more difficult. But that’s what we’re trying to do. We are looking for a way to stay up there.
But you are not playing against nobodies, you are playing against good teams as well with quality. We need to realise that as well. I can understand if fans are disappointed, you’re allowed to be disappointed but you need to support the team as well, even in hard times and when they’re behind.
Players need that as well because it gives you an extra boost and can give you that extra bit in confidence to get a result and it makes it more difficult for the opposition if the fans are doing that as well.
I can understand the disappointment, we are very disappointed, the players are very disappointed but we need to look to the next game.
READING: Al-Habsi; Williams, Gunter (c), L. Moore, van den Berg, Obita; Kelly, Beerens, Swift (Meite 73); McCleary, Kermorgant.
Subs not used: S. Moore, Watson, Cooper, Evans, Wieser, Samuel.
Yellow cards: L. Moore (85), van den Berg (88)
QPR: Smithies; Furlong, Onuoha (c), Hall, Lynch, Bidwell; Wszolek, Luongo, Manning (Doughty 85); Mackie (Comley 90+2), Sylla (LuaLua 73).
Subs not used: Ingram, El Khayati, Ngbakoto, Shodipo.
Goals: Mackie (27)
Yellow cards: Mackie (32), Wszolek (87)
Referee: Oliver Langford
Attendance: 12,655 (inc. 963 away)
