Jaap Stam On Burton Albion Win

All Reading fans woke up with a smile on their face on Wednesday morning, not only because of the imminent excitement of Bushwatch but also because we could finally all celebrate a win! What an important one it was too against Burton Albion.

The Royals took the lead in the first half through Jon Dadi Bodvarsson, before Burton equalised through a penalty. A very rare goal for Chris Gunter put us back ahead before Bodvarsson scored his second to leave with a 3-1 victory and three crucial points.

This means the pressure is off Jaap Stam a little bit, but he admits the Royals had to dig deep to get the result, he told the Official Club website:

“It’s a good result not for myself, but the whole squad. Everybody knew what we needed to do over here; playing over here is never easy and against a team who are very physical and very direct in how they play and who needs the points as well.

“So we knew we had to match them in their physicality and find our stride to score goals. And, in what you’ve seen tonight, I think the boys did very well.

“It’s difficult to play football against a team who play so direct, launching the ball forward at every opportunity. And if they’re right on top of you sometimes it can be difficult to play your game,

“So you need to dig in deep yourself, work very hard to get that result. Sometimes you want to play in a certain way but you can’t always do that. And the points are the most important thing.

“In the last game, at Sheffield Wednesday, we had the opportunities but didn’t score. And they scored with every opportunity they had. So we needed to be better, everyone was aware of that.

“We scored the first goal but they scored with a penalty. In quite a few games we have conceded a goal and the opposition have gone on to get a second one. So when they scored, of course the players were disappointed, but it was important for the team to push on, go forward and look for the second and the third. And that’s what they’ve done tonight.

“Throughout the team, everybody was working very hard for it, we played well and we created opportunities and score goals. So everybody is very happy with that.

“You’re always looking at the league table and where we are. And we knew this was an important game. This win gives us a boost and hopefully we can do it again in Saturday’s home game against Millwall - another very important game.”