Stam: "You Sometimes Don't Get What You Deserve."

It sounds as though we didn't deserve the 3-2 defeat we received yesterday afternoon at Derby County, but after the game Jaap Stam praised his squad for their team spirit.

The Royals took the lead early in the first half through John Swift after great work from Liam Kelly, but Derby equalised just before half time through Darren Bent. After the break, Tom Ince scored following a mix up in defence, before Will Hughes added a third. Yakou Meite scored a late consolation and Reading finished with 10 men after Jordan Obita was sent off in the final few minutes.

Every thing I read after the game suggested that we deserved more, and Jaap didn't disagree. He told the Official Club website:

"We deserved more today. We played very well in the first half an hour and Derby were having lots of difficulties with the way we played.

"And we deserved the first goal, a very good goal. They got the equaliser before half-time - although it was maybe a handball - and after that they tried to press us higher up the pitch, not that they succeeded in getting a lot of chances in front of goal. But we stopped playing a bit.

"So we spoke about it at half-time and the second half we dominated again! But, in the way we want to play, we ask the players to take risks. And we took a little too much risk or maybe the ball we played out from the back wasn't good enough and - if we lose it there - it's painful.

"That's what happened and, if you look at the first two goals, we gave them away too easily - the opposition didn't have to do anything to score those two goals and they got three points too easily off the back of them.

"The second goal is not because they did something well, it's because we didn't do something well - we took too much risk in the build up.

"As we look for the equaliser, spaces are opening up and they are dangerous on the break, they counter attack and it bounces to someone's feet in the box and they finish it off."

Team Spirit

Meite scored his first goal for the Royals and Stam felt that even at 3-1 down, we could have got back into the game, adding:

"The spirit of the team we have is very good. Even at 3-1 down, we still want to go for those two goals and get at least a point.

"Sometimes at 3-1 the game is done, but the spirit within the team is good. And you can see that spirit. We kept pushing, kept going forward - of course it's not easy to create chances because they are defending with every mean in front of their own box. But still we got the second one and we nearly got the third.

"But they defended well towards the end, they worked very hard and they had a couple of strong fellas at the  back who can head the ball. So we deserved more, but in football you sometimes don't get what you deserve.

"If you give away two easy goals, it's not easy to win games. It's all about scoring one goal more than the opposition. And you don't want to lose games, nobody is happy losing games!

"And a lot of people will start talking about the couple of games we lost, but that's football. We won a lot of games in the first half of the season... and sometimes you lose a couple as well.

"Today, we didn't succeed, didn't get what we deserved. But we look to Tuesday with the confidence that we played well. We're mentally strong and now we need to show that mentality to start winning games."

Next up for the Royals is our rearranged fixture against Fulham on Tuesday night, and let's hope that Stam's side get that winning mentality back again. URZ!