HEY TO BEES

Royals focus on Brentford clash after stalemate

READING boss Veljko Paunovic admits the pressure is building as he prepared for a promotion battle with Brentford.

The Bees are storming towards the Premier League and unbeaten in 20 Championship games.

The last time Brentford lost in the league was at Stoke in October and the Potters ought to have taken advantage of a limp Royals performance and beaten them too. But James Mcclean wasted their best chance in a poor match.

Reading will have to up their game on Wednesday at home to Brentford. The best Paunovic got out of this was a clean sheet, a point and the fact his side were better towards the end.

Had Mcclean finished a move well set-up by John Obi Mikel instead of shooting at keeper Rafael, Reading would not have taken their unbeaten league run to seven.

Brentford are six points ahead of them and Paunovic (below) knows that if he is to be in with a chance of nicking automatic promotion, he must beat the second-placed Bees.

“It’s a very important game, one of the most important so far in the season,” he said. “We don’t want to put the pressure on us but we know how we have to prepare for the game. We are aware of the time of the season and where we are.

“It’s a hard stretch, the pressure is building, but we are known as competitors in every single game.

“For this match we will compete once again because we want to win. We know who we have in front of us and it’s not going to be easy. We will need our best and our ‘all’ to win this game.”

Stoke have been on the verge of breaking into the top six but are sliding away, winless since beating Blackburn before Christmas when they were seventh.

In Tottenham’s loan winger Jack Clarke, who cost Spurs £10million from Leeds 19 months ago, they have a 20-year-old with the trickery to unlock defences.

But Stoke did not capitalise on what he created and boss Michael O’neill said: “I wasn’t disappointed with the performance but disappointed we didn’t take more from the game.”

Six of Stoke’s last eight league games have been draws and it has left them treading water.