Clarke: It Was The Reaction I Expected

Another away game, another win. Again, we had a very happy manager whose side battled well against promotion contenders Ipswich at Portman Road with a 1-0 victory.

Steve Clarke told the Official Reading F.C. website,

"If you don't come and battle and stand up at a place like this you lose. You have to be a man when you come here and, today, we had a lot of men on the pitch."

Jamie Mackie's 14^th minute winner saw the Royals take all three points back to Berkshire, which saw Ipswich lose only their third home game of the season.

After a difficult couple of weeks in the league, Clarke was happy with the response from the players, saying:

"It was the reaction I expected. We have had a couple of blows at home recently, but we have always shown resilience to bounce back.

"That shows you the character of the group. We are determined to push higher up the table, we know that we should be higher up and we're determined between now and the end of the season to address that."

Even though Clarke was delighted with the result, he (like every Reading fan I'm sure) was frustrated with the fact that our away form cannot be replicated at the Madejski. Clarke added:

"I didn't know whether to be happy for them today or whether to be a little bit angry with the fact that we can't produce that type of performance at home."

Clarke told GetReading that scoring first is pivotal:

"The first goal is always important and can give you a platform in the game.

"We got it today and managed to build on it. We stayed strong, stayed resilient and apart from the last 10-to 15 minutes when we got pegged back and looked a bit leggy as a team, we defended really well."

Now on to Tuesday night with a difficult game against Huddersfield at the John Smith's stadium. Three points again is a must to move away from the relegation area.