Jaap Stam On A Tight Loss At Bristol City

After an incredibly disappointing performance on Saturday against Burton, the Royals needed to improve with a visit to high flying Bristol City. There was a minor improvement, but as we have heard all season, we missed good opportunities to pick up some points.

Instead we left pointless and with City finishing the day in second with a 2-0 win.

The two second half strikes by City leaves the Royals in 17th, but Stam felt that it was a close game - he told the Official Club website:

“It was a tight game - not a lot of chances for either side. They scored the first one - and it was a good goal to be honest, a top corner finish. Not much more I can say about that.

“But we had the opportunities to score the equaliser and get back into the game. But we don’t do that, don’t finish it off in two good moments for Mo Barrow.

“And you know, because you’re pressing, they are going to get away once or twice on the counter - and you need to defend that. But it’s done when they score the second one in injury time.

“But you couldn’t say that one team played better than the other today. The finishing needed to be a bit better from us, but we need to have that bit of luck too.

“The players worked very hard to get a result. And they did everything they could. But football is about not conceding and scoring goals yourself.

“And although the ball went up and down the pitch and both teams had to fight for the ball throughout - it looked like whoever scored that first goal was going to win. We didn’t score and we didn’t get any points.

“It’s very frustrating. We need to deal with this little run and take our opportunities to get out of the run.

“The players are very disappointed at not getting results - especially when you’re very close; you are getting opportunities but not scoring them, or you’re conceding silly goals.

“But the confidence is there. And sometimes you have to have that bit of luck too.”

Next up for the Royals is a trip to Barnsley on Saturday.