‘Samuel can help us Dom-inate’
JAAP Stam says fit-again Dominic Samuel will add another deadly dimension to his attack as Reading marched on to their fourth consecutive league win.
Samuel – on his first league start for the Royals – and Danny Williams both scored goals in the first half before John Brayford’s own goal ensured that the points were made safe in the second period.
The home side climb up to third in the league for the first time in over a year but Stam refused to put much stock in the Championship table.
“I’m really happy with how prolific we are at the moment,” he said.
“We’re always thinking about how we can change things in how we play to score more goals.
“Every team that we play we think about the different ways we can create chances. The players are responding really well.
“Samuel is a talented young player. He was out with an injury for a long time and now that he’s fit he’s a threat for everybody. He helps us going forward and defensively.
“This league is so tight. We need to keep winning and then we can stay near the top of the table.We aren’t focussed on getting to a certain position in the table, we are just focussed on performances so I’m not thinking about promotion right now.”
Reading started quickly and could have been ahead after five minutes when 22-year-old Samuel latched onto a through ball, only to fire his shot into the side-netting.
And the striker had his first goal of the season when he slid in at the far post to convert Roy Beerens misdirected shot with 21 minutes gone.
Burton’s defence struggled against the pace of Reading’s forwards and should have done more to intercept Jordan Obita’s low cross before Williams tapped in soon after.
The visitors wasted their best chance to get back in the game when Chris O’Grady could not organise his feet quickly enough when a deflection dropped to him in front of goal.
Garath McCleary nearly had Reading’s third in the 51st minute when Samuel cut the ball back for him in the area but he blasted his shot over the bar.
Jackson Irvine nearly pulled one back for Burton but Stuart Beavon’s cross just missed the midfielder’s outstretched boot.
Substitute Yakou Meite cut in from the right and angled his shot across Jon McLaughlin, who could only palm his effort against Brayford to complete the rout.
And it left Brewers boss Nigel Clough acknowledging that his side need to find a killer touch to put away the chances they create.
“We started brightly in the first 20 minutes but you have to take your chances and we haven’t scored which has been the story of our whole season,” he explained.
“Confidence for strikers is everything and when you’re struggling we start taking half a second too long to think about our chances and it has an effect.
“I would feel sorry for our strikers if we weren’t creating chances but we have been, and we had 15 shots away from home here. So creating chances isn’t the problem, it’s putting them away.
“There needs to be perspective though. We’re Burton Albion playing at Reading and the result is probably as it should be. We’ll keep going though and we’ll keep believing.”