This football lark is becoming quite fun this season! A Friday night at the Madejski under the lights. Three penalties, three points and now we’re up to third place!
Ipswich conceded a late first half penalty which Garath McCleary slotted home. The Tractor Boys equalised early on in the second half through a Brett Pitman penalty which was given away by Tyler Blackett, but right at the death Danny Williams scored the final penalty of the evening to secure a brilliant three points.
Jaap Stam was absolutely delighted and told the Official Club website: "I thought we played very well in the first half, created a couple of very good chances, should have scored earlier than we did but didn’t, but we were the better team.
"We got the penalty at the end – was it a penalty or wasn’t it? If you look at the images, you can say that the penalty can be given by the referee.
"It is a handball, he’s not deliberately going towards the ball with his hand, but if it doesn’t hit his hand maybe the ball gets through to our striker in the box and he can score – so that’s why the referee decided to give it.
"At half-time we spoke about them changing things to make it difficult for us and they pressed high up the pitch and didn’t let us play our possession game, not giving us the same space to play or to pass the ball through. So we started to play the ball long and go with how they play.
"The second penalty, wasn’t a penalty at all. But at 1-1 we started to put the long ball over, left, right, but then you lose it and have to win it back again. Credit to Ipswich in how they played, we knew they had a physical side with quality players and they kept going to the end.
"We played the ball up to Kermorgant and from there tried to win the second ball and created chances. Sometimes you need to do that.
"But we also needed to try to keep the ball and create chances – we could have done that more. We didn’t succeed in that in the second half, but the players worked very hard as a team for the win. We didn’t let our heads drop and we kept going.
"The last one was a penalty, because their player is holding Joey and that’s why he went down.
"You could see from the body language of the players that none of them were that eager to take that penalty! Last minute, if you miss it… but if you take it and you make it, you are the celebrated player!
"Danny took it, he’s an experienced player, he knows what to do at the right time and he scored a great penalty. So I’m really pleased we nicked the win and I’m very proud of the players again."
Next up, it’s Birmingham at the Madejski on Tuesday evening.