Jaap joy at Royals recovery
Mendes helps Stam to forget Norwich ‘off day’
READING boss Jaap Stam hailed the Royals’ powers of recovery after they were hammered 7-1 at Norwich last weekend.
Two goals from Joseph Mendes and Lewis Grabban’s penalty lifted them to fourth and six points clear of seventh- placed Fulham, with relegated Rotherham to play tomorrow.
Stam said: ‘I’m very happy with the character of my team throughout the whole season. OK, sometimes we get defeats but we’re not too worried about defeats.
‘We beat Norwich at home and over there you can lose, you can talk about the scoreline and everything — we do that as well — but it’s how you bounce back.
‘We’re very confident in how the team can play. You can have an off day—look at PSG against Barcelona — but it’s about what you do after. The players have been positive.’
Mendes scored his first goal after just six minutes and James Chester equalised soon after but Mendes struck again just 19 seconds into the second half. Grabban then made the game safe with a 79thminute penalty after Leandro Bacuna pulled back Liam Kelly.
It was Mendes’ full league debut after signing from Le Havre last summer and Stam was pleased with his impact. ‘For Joseph it wasn’t the easiest season because he came from France and had some injuries. He has worked hard in the last couple of months,’ he said.
Defeat ended mid- table Villa’s five-match unbeaten run and boss Steve Bruce was angry after their 14th loss of the season. ‘I don’t like getting beaten and I don’t like getting beaten by sloppiness,’ he said.
‘I couldn’t fault their effort but it was how they handled making a mistake. If you’re going to play for a big club like this you’ve got to be able to handle that.
‘We made more individual errors than we have done in the past three months.
‘We have been punished and given really, really bad goals away.’