Jaap Stam on Wolves Defeat

League leaders Wolves were the visitors to the Madejski Stadium yesterday afternoon and the Royals deserved more than they got from the game.

Jaap Stam’s side made plenty of chances, but just didn't finish them off. Sadly, those missed opportunities cost us with Wolves taking all three points with a 2-0 win.

Penalty shouts, great saves from John Ruddy, the post and a goal line clearance. If we had had luck on our side yesterday, we would have probably taken all three points, but it just wasn't meant to be. We are now 19th in the table, but there are things we can take out of the game and be positive about.

Jaap Stam told the official club website after the game:

"Today we’re not taking the points, when we deserved at least one. We were playing against a good side, but the number of chances we created during the game... we needed to finish them off.

"We gave away the first goal too easily; you have to track your runner and he had too much time to finish it. Wolves have quality players – we all know that - so if you give them time and space they will punish you.

"We weren't focused at that point, we let him run into the box and he finished it off. And at 1-0 down you know what can happen. They tried to press us and looked to occasionally go forward – but we should have scored a couple of times in the first half and didn’t.

"At half-time we know they are going to look to wait a little bit more, to go out on the break and score that second. But in the second half we dominated the match and played very well. But we just couldn’t finish our chances.

"And towards the end of the game they scored a second – in trying to get that equaliser, our players naturally got a bit tired and we couldn’t close him down and get the block in. It was only their first or maybe their second opportunity. But after that goes in, it’s basically done.”

He also picked out the positives that can be taken from the match, saying:

"We should have scored at least two, we had seven or eight good opportunities. So we needed to be clinical.

"The players worked very, very hard today. We created a lot of chances and showed a lot of character and quality today. But not scoring the chances we got was what was lacking.

"We have the next game on Tuesday – not an easy one, but one we'll try to win."

Next up for the Royals is a trip to Bolton Wanderers on Tuesday.