Ruben Selles: Young Reading Side Did ‘Great Job’ Against Cheltenham Town

The Royals celebrated their first league win of the season after a 1-0 victory against Cheltenham Town at the SCL Stadium on Tuesday night.

A Will Ferry own goal gave Reading all three points, our first league win since February. Manager Ruben Selles was delighted with the victory and felt that, overall, it was a good performance. Here is what he had to say; he spoke to the official club website

Selles on the performance

“It was a good performance – our boys did a great job. They played when they needed to play, they pressed when they needed to press. And they suffered to keep the clean sheet when they needed!

“They managed the game in the proper way – we’re happy for that.”

Selles on starting a young side

“Age is very relative. You can have players that are 18 or 19 that look older, and players that are 32 that look young. We showed that everyone has the energy to play for this team. It doesn’t matter if you’re 18 or 32, they all have the same emotion and the same intention. When we do things together, we can beat anybody.

“Everyone has been doing a really good job. Especially these young players that have been with us for the last two months now. I have been really hard with them to push them forward. There is a moment where they connect everything and they showed how competitive they are – then it’s my time to make decisions.”

Selles on luck

“We made our luck! We created situations – we win a header, fight for the second ball, play forward, and we end up in their box. When you’re in the box, things happen.

“It was not the most beautiful or clear goal… but it’s our goal and we’ll take it! Sometimes the luck goes against you. Today we got it, because we deserved it.”

Selles on tactics

“In this league, you face teams that are direct. They did that sometimes from set pieces and we managed it well. It’s not always about how well you can propose things in possession – it can be about how well you can defend.

“We always try to be very aggressive in our pressing because we are not a team that can speculate, stay low and defend crosses for 95 or 100 minutes. So we want to be proactive. That’s what we were today.”

Selles on the home support

“The atmosphere was really good and the crowd were with us. They like to see us playing and to see the intensity. We gave them our first victory today so it is a day to celebrate for all of us. But tomorrow, we go back to work!”