Clarke On Reading FC's "Rut"

Steve Clarke was really disappointed to not get a result in our final home game of the season against Brentford.

The Bees kept up their chase for a play-off place with a 2-0 win, a game where Reading had plenty of chances. All I can say is thank goodness we are mathematically safe!

Clarke spoke to the official club website after the game,

"We’re stuck in a little bit of a rut, especially here at home. I don’t like to say the performances are OK because we’ve been losing, but we look like a good team until we get to the final third of the pitch.

"I’m disappointed with the two goals we lost, and overall I’m disappointed for the supporters. We were desperate to win our last home game for them, put on a performance and score some goals, send them home happy.

"I thought it was a game we were always in, always competitive, we had chances but didn’t take them. Brentford, to be fair, were more dangerous around the box than we were, that was the difference."

It was difficult to see that this was the same team that played just a week before at Wembley against Arsenal. We haven’t scored at the Madejski for quite a while and this is something that Clarke is aware of.

"We’re struggling for goals, you can’t say it any other way. I’ve tried every forward player, whether it’s a lack of confidence, nervousness. I don’t know. We create but we’re not putting it away.

"We miss Pavel Pogrebnyak when he doesn’t play, he’s a physical reference point for us to go forward. We always look a little more likely to score when he’s in the team. It’s something we have to address."

With two games left of this campaign, it would be nice to get six points, but they will be difficult games with both Rotherham and Derby fighting for points, Clarke finished by adding:

"We look forward to both of them, proper games with something on them, hopefully away from home we can relax a bit (in front of goal) and find the goals that are missing.

"The club has had three seasons of disappointment, you can sense that around the stadium, hopefully we can change that next season."