Clem’s relief at Royals

READING ended their long wait for a Championship win by downing Preston in a thriller at Deepdale – and Royals boss Paul Clement hopes his side have turned the corner.

Leandro Bacuna was the unlikely match-winner, slotting home his first goal since November of last year, with nine minutes left.

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, eight minutes later, with a powerful shot.

Portuguese defender Tiago Ilori netted his first goal for the club 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 (above) 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 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.”

The win sees the Royals leapfrog the Lilywhites, but stay in the drop zone.

Preston boss Alex Neil admitted his side had paid the price for chasing all three points.

“I’m disappointed we didn’t get anything from the game,” he said.

“I thought we had more than enough opportunities, but, on the other hand, if you need to score four goals to get a win, well, that’s not good. Sometimes you want to go on and win the game when you could maybe solidify – and it did backfire for us.”