Jaap Stam Happy With Reading FC's Victory At Wigan Athletic

A Garath McCleary brace, a penalty from Yann Kermorgant and clean sheet meant three points returned to Berkshire yesterday after a 3-0 victory against Wigan at the DW Stadium.

McCleary opened the scoring in the first 57 seconds, and he made it two just minutes later before celebrating with Jaap Stam. Kermorgant scored a second half spot kick to move the Royals up to fourth just before the international break.

Stam's plan fell nicely into place and he told the official club website:

"We knew with a new manager, what they could do to us. They will have known how we want to play and we expected them to press high up the pitch.

"So, as a result, we were looking to play that ball in behind into our runners from midfield and the forward players... and that's what happened at the beginning of the game. And we scored two great goals.

"We always talk about it during the week in training, because our wide players can't stay wide, they have to make those runs in behind and take up the position of the striker - if they do it creates confusion in the opposition.

"So we're always trying to look for those pockets in behind and with quality players like Swifty, with the technical capabilities he has in his game, if you get the ball into his feet, he can create things.

"We needed to start very aggressively with runs in behind using the pace we have - and that's what we did. We scored that very early goal, then got a second through G-Mac - and that makes immediately makes it more difficult for the opposition.

Ali Al Habsi had a rare quiet afternoon with Wigan having no response, and Stam was happy with the defence, he added:

"We defended very well. Games against teams near the bottom of the table can be very difficult. But we put 100% work rate into it and we got the win we deserved.

"We didn't give a lot of chances away and we created more chances of our own. We didn't score them, but I'm very happy with the win of course.

"It's all about the timing, playing that pass, making that run. It's very important to our game. We're looking for that moment every time - it doesn't always happen as you want it to go. But today, we seemed to do it quite well."

Now with the international break the Royals have a two week break before Burton Albion are the visitors at the Madejski on 19 November. But there will be no resting on the training ground in the next few weeks, Stam said:

"When things are going well, it's even more important to analyse the things that aren't going well. It's more important to do it when you have won, because if you do it when you've lost, you are analysing things too late.

"We always try to improve our game. Sometimes it goes better than other times, but we're quite consistent in what we want to do and we're getting results.

"The break is always welcome. But when you're in a rhythm you want to play, so certain players who were here today will join the U23s to play in the Checkatrade Trophy game on Wednesday. The internationals will go away and play of course, and the rest of the squad we will stay behind and we will work to improve them and get them into shape fitness-wise.