Clarke On Blackpool Draw

Relegated Blackpool were last night's opponents and within the early minutes of the first half, Reading went 1-0 down through a Jamie O'Hara penalty. Clarke made four changes before the game, and he made changes at half time with Pavel Pogrebnyak and Jamie Mackie both coming into the fray. The Royals equalised minutes later with a Grant Hall own goal.

Clarke told Reading F.C. player, "It wasn't a good game, the pitch was dreadful and the first half from us was dreadful. The second half at least we got off to a flying start after a couple of changes. I felt at half time I should put on a little bit more power, a little bit more directness onto the game. It paid off immediately but then there were a couple of long injury delays that seemed to take our momentum away."

"We were much better second half, we were more competitive and had a great chance to win it near the end with Pavel, he just put it wide. We had one or two things but it wasn't a great game."

Clarke was unhappy with the penalty awarded to Blackpool, he told GetReading reporter Charles Watts, "I thought it was soft. But we allowed them to get in a position where the referee can make those soft decisions against us."

Finally Clarke praised the Reading fans who travelled up to Blackpool yesterday evening, he said: "They were great - we appreciate the fact that they're here. It's a long way to come up and it was never going to be a pretty game of football, the surface dictated that. But at least they got something to cheer about in the second half, we appreciate their effort and look forward to seeing them on Saturday."

Next up is Blackburn at the Madejski on Saturday. Make sure you attend as it's going to be a fantastic afternoon of football! #ryansroyals.