Royal relief after Bacuna strikes
PAUL CLEMENT hopes his side have turned the corner after Reading recorded their first win of the season by downing Preston in a thriller at Deepdale.
Leandro Bacuna was the unlikely match-winner, slotting home his first goal since November of last year with only nine minutes left to secure the points.
Striker Sam Baldock gave the visitors a 23rd-minute lead against the run of play with a clinical strike, before Jamaican midfielder Daniel Johnson levelled matters eight minutes later with a powerful shot.
Portuguese defender Tiago Ilori netted his first Reading goal and first goal for nearly four years to put the Royals in front again, only for Callum Robinson to equalise for the hosts with a tap-in.
But there was still time for Dutch midfielder Bacuna to win it and leave Clement a relieved man.
“We haven’t had that winning feeling in the league for a while, so it’s [the win] great,” he said.
“We had to work hard for it because it was a very close game, but it’s those margins which has been all season.
“Fortunately we managed to get those little details right and it saw us over the line.
“We are very, very happy and we’ve got to use that as a catalyst to move forward.
“It wasn’t a perfect performance by any means. We conceded two goals, we gave up a lot of chances and I can’t say we dominated. That wasn’t the case.
“But it was a very close game and we just came out on top.
“I was very pleased with the mental strength of the team, it’s something we’ve been speaking about but not sharing with the media. I came here three years ago, almost to the day, with Derby and we’d drawn the first four games and lost against Leeds.
“We had four points going into the international break, but then we beat Preston and went on a fantastic run. I told the players that story before the game.
“We’ve got to keep going now. Every day we’re working on improving.”
Victory for the Royals sees them leapfrog the Lilywhites but stay in the drop zone in the Championship table.
And Preston boss Alex Neil admitted his side had paid the price for chasing all three points.
“Naturally I’m really disappointed we didn’t get anything from the game,” he said.
“I thought we had more than enough opportunities to get something from the game.
“But on the other hand if you need to score four goals to get a win, well that’s not a good position to be in.
“I’m more frustrated than anything else because I’ve been involved in games where we’ve played poorly and not deserved anything, but I didn’t think that was the case.
“Our last two results had been good, but we had to twice come back and then we were hit with a sucker-punch when we tried to go on and win the game.
“Sometimes you want to go on and win the game when you could maybe solidify – and it did backfire for us. I’d rather try and win the game instead of settling for a draw.”