Reading FC's Jaap Stam On Nottingham Forest Defeat

After a great Easter, in typical Reading style it was back to reality with quite a bump.

Nottingham Forest are fighting for their lives at the bottom of the Championship and have played well against the top sides this season.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought when we went 3-0 down it was going to be a long afternoon, but actually it was nice to see a fight back with Yann Kermorgant getting a brace.

I suppose 3-2 isn't the worst score but three points would have confirmed our play-off spot. We need just one point from our last two games.

Jaap Stam was disappointed in his sides performance, he told the Official club website:

"We were poor today. In how we started the game, we weren't aggressive enough. We knew what to expect over here, because they needed to win to help them stay up... and they were right on top of us and didn't give us a lot of time on the ball from the off.

"We needed a result to get ourselves safe in the top six, but if you play like we started the game and then you go 1-0 down, you make it very difficult for yourselves. We lost it, one ball through the middle, they're 1-0 up, and that gives them the boost they need.

"At the start of the second half, you want to start well - but straight away you concede that second one which makes it even harder to get back into the game. And then they go 3-0 up and you're thinking OK, what is going happen now - how is the team going to respond to this?

"And we go and score two goals to get back into it. And getting the equaliser was important to us. But after those two goals we needed to stay calm, keep on playing like we have done so many times before this season. But basically we didn't do that.

"We didn't have our normal composure. We didn't wait to pass that ball, the diagonals were too quick, the long ball up front was too soon - against Rotherham last Monday we kept our cool until the last kick of the game and created chances. We didn't do that today.

"Instead, Forest kept on fighting, making it difficult and eventually they won the game - a fair result over the course of 94 minutes, they deserved it.

"To score those two goals, we played in a certain way; we were patient, got the crosses into the box at the right time and we scored those two goals. But we didn't play well enough, we should have kept our patience. We didn't and we made it easy for them."

Wigan are next up at the Madejski and they are also fighting for their lives, but with our home form being so good, let's hope we can push the boys over the line for that one point needed.

"We need to work very hard to get results, we have always said that of this team. We might only need one point, but Wigan - our next game - is going to be a very important game for them as well.

"They're going to give it a real go, they're going to make it difficult for us I am sure. We know that, it's what we do with that.

"It would have been nice for it to be all over today and secured. But now we need to fight for that one point. And we will need to talk about this performance this week and look to win next weekend."