Clarke: We Are A Work In Progress

Steve Clarke was understandably disappointed after his sides 2-0 defeat against Leeds on Tuesday evening at the Madejski Stadium.

Clarke described the team as ‘work in progress’, after it seemed that the team had gone back to playing the way we did under Nigel Adkins. It’s the story of our season, we take one step forward, and then two back.

Clarke told Reading FC player: "It’s disappointing but we’ve had a good run. Nobody was getting too carried away when we we’re getting good results and nobody is going to be too down."

It was a poor performance after recent results and after our fantastic 2-1 win at Wolves at the weekend, people were beginning to think that would kick start our season. But Leeds travelled to Madejski and gave the ‘perfect away performance’ as said repeatedly on BBC Radio Berkshire last night.

Clarke added: "Credit to Leeds, they played well. It was a good away performance from them. It was a game where I felt, even before the game, the first goal would be crucial because that would open the game up a little bit.

"Unfortunately for us Leeds got the first goal with a great strike from distance, which has to be a good strike to beat Adam, and from there we huffed and puffed a little bit but couldn’t really create anything that was clear cut and got caught by the sucker punch for the second goal near the end."

With another busy week ahead, we move onto our FA Cup fifth round clash with Derby on Saturday afternoon. What side will Clarke play? Will he make changes?

Clarke continued: "The games come thick and fast. Sometimes that’s a good thing. I think the players, even in the short time I’ve spent with them after the game; they are looking forward to the next game already.

"We’re still trying to improve, and we’re still trying to make the team better, make the squad better and take Reading back up the league table. Tonight is a set back but as I’ve said before, we move on from it."