Bark has bite to fire Grayson’s glory bid
TWO-GOAL star Tom Barkhuizen is not getting carried away by Preston’s demolition job – but believes his side are good enough for the play-offs.
Simon Grayson’s men were better in every area and a double from Barkhuizen on his full home debut and another from Daryl Horgan rocked the Royals.
The win puts Preston back in the play-offs shake-up and Barkhuizen, signed from Morecambe in January, would love to gatecrash the end-of-season party.
He said: “When you look at the stadium, there is not much better, the fans really get behind the players and we are one of the teams in the division with no debt and that is a massive thing.
Tight
“We’re just taking it game by game and if we get there, then we do. If we don’t, then it’s still another good season.
“It’s been a really good day and the important thing is three points and we’re only six points off the play-offs.
“I think it’s going to be really tight and I think Fulham will definitely sneak in there but if Reading are fifth and we are beating them 3-0, then who knows?
“We are not going to get too ahead of ourselves or put pressure on ourselves to get into the play-offs.
“We just look to the next game and who knows where we will be at the end of the season?”
After an opening that saw both keepers busy, Barkhuizen broke the deadlock after 31 minutes, curling home a shot from outside the box.
Just before the break he set up Horgan following a good run and it was game over in the 49th minute as Barkhuizen latched on to Andy Boyle’s knockdown.
Until the opening goal, Reading had looked sharp but they fell apart after the break and boss Jaap Stam was furious.
He said: “The players were very eager to do well but we need to learn.
“To win games like these you need to be focused and when we get the opportunities, we need to finish them.
“If we want to stay where we are in the table, we can not make small mistakes.”