Paul Clement Proud Of Reading Performance At Brentford

After a disastrous start to the season, we’ve now picked up seven points from our last four games. Are things beginning to turn round for us? Reading faced a difficult afternoon away at Brentford, but picked up a deserved point and left feeling as though they should have probably taken all three after the home side went down to ten men.

Brentford took the lead in the 11th minute through Neal Maupay before man of the moment Jon Dadi Bodvarsson equalised in the 25th minute. John Swift gave the Royals the lead in the second half but, after Brentford’s Said Benrahma was sent off in the closing stages, the hosts scored a late equaliser through Yoann Barbet to share the points.

Paul Clement was back on media duty this week and felt it was a great game, telling the official club website and GetReading the match had “loads of passion” and was “edge of the seat stuff”.

Clement on the excitement of the game

“This wasn’t a game that merits being last on the billing order tonight when the highlights are played. That should be right up there. The atmosphere from both sets of supporters was fantastic - our fans were fantastic!”

Clement on the Reading goals

“It sounds like Jon Dadi got both touches - both were good strikes by Swift. The keeper was struggling to get hold of them and the job of the striker is to get there and anticipate where the ball is going to be.”

Clement on picking up a point

“Our away form was good before today’s game and if you’re told you’re going to get a point away at Brentford, you’d probably take it. But, a little bit like Blackburn away, we led again here and we’ve not managed to quite take all three points.”

Clement on not taking all three points

“When you’re leading 2-1 and the 90 are up... we come away disappointed not to have taken all three points - particularly because they had ten men on the field at the end.

“The momentum shifted to them even though they had the ten men, they pushed and pushed at the end. They are a good side, they use the ball really well and the second off near the end didn’t seem to affect them.”

Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images

Clement on 10 minutes of extra time

“It was nine and then they saw something else and put 10 up. It’s one of the most I have been involved in. The free-kick took an age and I’m not sure why. But that’s why it was probably so long.”

Clement on a massive performance

“I’m very proud of the effort the boys put in - they put in a massive performance. It was filled with passion and I think you can see a mental shift in this team. The confidence is back and that is pleasing.

“They showed a good reaction after going 1-0 down early on. We know that Brentford are a really good attacking side and yet I thought for the entirety of the game we were very much in it.”

Clement on players who came off injured

“I’m hoping Barrow, Meite and Swift are not injury issues. It was just from the sheer amount of physical effort they put in. We’ll have to find out if it’s fatigue or injuries.”

Clement on turning the corner

“I think we have turned a corner but we’ve got to keep it going, because it can soon go back in the other direction - after our win against Preston we took a backward step. We have got to make sure we keep taking forward steps.

“The points tally over the last four games is good. And when you get points away from home at difficult places like this, you’ve got to back it up at home.

“So we need to repeat the performance we put in against Hull when we welcome QPR to the Madejski Stadium on Tuesday night.”

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