Away-day blues rile Stam

READING must bid farewell to their away day blues if they want to challenge for the automatic play-off spots, according to manager Jaap Stam.

Reading were beaten 1-0 by Preston – their second successive away defeat this season – following Jordan Hugill’s firsthalf strike but, in truth, the margin of defeat could have been far greater in a one-sided contest.

The Royals lost 11 games away last season compared to just two at home and Stam is determined to stop that record this time around.

“Our home record is good but you don’t want to build everything on the home record, you want to get points away as well,” Stam said.

“Last season we got third in the league with poor away results but we want to improve and do better, everyone wants to improve.

“We are still building and trying to get to where we want to get to. We need to start from zero again and teams know that if they want to play against us they need to be aggressive and we need to handle that better.”

The Dutchman was unhappy with the performance of his side, admitting they failed to match Preston’s physicality.

“I am not happy in how we played and what we did. If you play against a side like Preston you have to bring everything to the game including physique, pace, aggressiveness and hopefully play your own game.

“Out there we didn’t get what we expected from it.”

The hosts came close to opening the scoring after eight minutes when Josh Harrop’s corner was flicked on at the near post and came to centreback Ben Davies, who guided a volley just over the bar from 12 yards.

Preston deservedly took the lead after 22 minutes. Tom Barkhuizen’s cross was brilliantly attacked by Sean Maguire, whose header put it on a plate for Hugill to control on his chest before hammering home from six yards.

Stam’s side, who had conceded 15 goals in their last five away league games prior to this match, were struggling to hang in the contest as Maguire and Daniel Johnson both had great chances inside the Reading box on 65 minutes but last-ditch blocks kept Preston out.

Reading launched several balls into the box but failed to force a save from Chris Maxwell as Preston secured back-to-back home wins.

The hosts have now lost just one of their last 13 league games at Deepdale and new boss Alex Neil believed they were well worth the win.

“I thought we were the better side and created numerous opportunities,” he said.

“The only disappointment is that it finished 1-0. If it had been three or four nobody could have had any complaints.

“I’m extremely satisfied with that. It was an incredible effort from the lads, I thought they were top, top drawer.

“We worked extremely hard, our shape was excellent and we had a lot of individual great performances.

“Therewasn’t a player on the pitch who didn’t contribute and do really well for us.

“Josh Earl on his debut didn’t let me down, I thought he was great.

“There’s more to come from him, there are not many 18 year olds who are 6ft 3 and can run like the wind.

“He’s got a bright future at this club.”