Clarke on Millwall, McCleary and Transfers

Steve Clarke was obviously frustrated and had some questions to answer regarding his selection for the game. The Scot left out Garath McCleary, a choice that shocked most fans and he was clearly very defensive about his selection choices, telling GetReading:

"I don’t have to justify every time I make a change on the pitch."

"I’m paid to manage the club and I really don’t think I need to answer that sort of question.

It will be interesting to see whether McCleary takes his place in the starting 11 this weekend when Sheffield Wednesday come to town.

Many felt that this was a must win game, so to leave with a point was disappointing. Clarke commented last week that if we were not careful, the team could find themselves in a relegation battle.
He told the Official website:

"We came here positive, we had good control in the first half and then the sending off in a strange way focused the minds of Millwall. They knew in the second half they had to just come out and defend and they did it well.

"We weren’t quite clinical enough and didn’t create enough in the second half. We got in a lot of really good positions but didn’t create enough to have a clear cut change and force a goal.

Even though it was a disappointing result, Clarke could still see the positives and is looking towards Saturday’s big fixture at the Madejski.

"We’re trying to build something, step by step, tonight the positive is a clean sheet, a point at a difficult place to come. If we win on Saturday, it will become a good point.

With Transfer Deadline Day looming, it’s obvious that the team need another striker, and since Glenn Murray has returned to Crystal Palace the team have only scored four goals in the last five games.

"I’m light up front.

"We’re watching a lot of videos, looking at a lot of players. We’ve got lots of options and we’re trying as hard as we can to help the squad."

It looks as though next Monday evening could be a late one had by all. Will it be an exciting Transfer Deadline Day to come?