Stam: We Deserved The Win

We won away! A thoroughly deserved three points are heading back to Berkshire after a 2-0 victory against Birmingham City at St Andrew’s secured out first victory of the season on the road.

Jon Dadi Bodvarsson came back from his injury to score his first goal in a Reading shirt, before George Evans scored his second of the season to seal the points.

Stam was a very happy man after the game and told the Official Club website:

“We deserved the win in how we played. We were well prepared for how they were going to be playing and the players were committed and did the job they needed to do in terms of possession, quality on the ball and the right movement at the right time.

“Of course, we can still identify areas where we can do better. But throughout the 95 minutes, we created quite a few opportunities to score, didn’t give too much away and we come away with a very good win just before the international break.”

The Royals dominated throughout the afternoon as they created multiple opportunities and should have scored more after a good chance was missed by Mo Barrow. Stam had special praise for Bodvarsson, adding:

“Even if you create quite a few opportunities, in a lot of games the opposition can score and you still lose a game.

“But Jon got the goal. He is a strong runner, he is good on the ball, he can hold up the ball, he’s a threat going forward and he can score a goal as we saw today.

“We believe in him and his quality, that’s why we brought him to the club. He’s been out with an injury to his knee - it’s not easy to be out for a few weeks, only be back in training for four or five days and to play for as long as he did today. But he did very well.

“At 1-0 up, you know the opposition are going to chance things press a little higher, play a bit more direct up to the big fellas up front who can win their headers.

“So by making a substitution in midfield, with fresh legs, if you can come out on the break you can hopefully make a difference. And it paid off when George Evans came on for Van den Berg. We came out with Garath McCleary and he scored that second goal which was a big relief for everybody.

“We have been a bit inconsistent in how we’ve played in the last couple of weeks, partly down to the injuries we’ve had, new players settling in to how we play and some players not quite there yet in what we need for them.

“But today you saw what we can bring to games if everybody is up for it, in shape, fit - and if we do it well we can make it difficult for anybody.

“Everybody was together in defending the lead, committed, determined in what they needed to do, so I’m very pleased with how we played both in and out of possession.

“We know what we can do. This month has been an extension of pre-season for us - we had a lot of injuries in the summer, a lot they had to come back, we’ve had some new players who have needed to integrate. But hopefully after these two weeks we will have more choices available to us in terms of players who are fit and available for selection.”

The Championship returns in two weeks’ time after the international break. Next up is Bristol City at the Madejski on the 9th September and hopefully we will have a few new additions to the squad - including Saturday’s signing Dave Edwards.