Reading boss Mark Bowen has hailed his side after their impressive 2-0 win against promotion chasing Preston North End.
The Royals left Deepdale with all three points after quick-fire first-half goals from John Swift and Lucas Joao.
Bowen’s side are on good form at the moment and will start to be looking up the table.
He spoke after the game yesterday, as per their official club website: “The most pleasing thing for me, as an ex-defender, is a fourth straight clean sheet. We came here today against one of the sides with the best home records in the league, and scored two excellent goals.”
“We took our chances well. And when we spoke at half-time, I said to the lads: there’s no need to go pressing too high up. Be tight, be compact. And no disrespect to Preston, but I felt that if we did that, they would give us the ball back and we could spring our breaks from there – which we did.
He added: “It may have looked like we were soaking up a lot of pressure, but that’s what’s we spoke about at half-time. We felt comfortable doing that. I knew that if we got our positions right, we could enjoy defending. It worked well for us.”
“There is more than one way to win a game and we have shown over the last few weeks that we can mix when we have to, be compact when we have to, and be expansive when we have to. I’m delighted – it’s been a good Christmas.”
