Jaap Stam Wins Championship Manager Of The Month Award

It's Friday, it's nearly the weekend, so here's some good news to brighten up your morning and get you through the day - Jaap Stam has claimed the Championship Manager of the Month award for January.

Reading picked up 12 points from a possible 18 last month, ending with three straight wins against Fulham, Cardiff City and Birmingham City to put themselves third in the table. The Dutchman beat Norwich's Alex Neil, Paul Lambert of Wolves and Cardiff City boss Coli Neil Warnock to pick up the accolade. This comes after he was nominated in September and November but didn't claim the prize.

Upon receiving the award, Stam said:

“It’s an honour to win the trophy but no manager can do it on their own. You need to have people around you to help you out, staff who have the knowledge and can pass it on to the team to help us get results.

“And if the players don’t perform, we don’t win a trophy like this! So I have to thank them as well because we get recognition thanks to their hard work, the performances they have been producing and the results we are picking up.”

He is the first Royals boss to achieve the award since Brian McDermott's back-to-back wins in February and March of 2012. Now we just have to hope that his side are not struck by the 'manager of the month' curse that does seem to have a mysterious effect. We will see if this is indeed the case as Barnsley visit the Madejski Stadium tomorrow as the play-off battle begins to really hot up.

Congratulations to Jaap, a well deserved bit of recognition for the superb work he has done at the club since taking charge!