Stam on Blades defeat: ‘We weren’t good enough’
Sheffield United 2 Reading 1
JAAP STAM admits Reading “weren’t good enough” as they fell to their sixth league defeat of the season, going down 2-1 at Bramall Lane.
Spirits were raised with a brilliant 1-0 victory at Leeds United last time out, but Royals were outplayed by a rampant Sheffield United side who sit third in the Championship table.
Paul Coutts and Billy Sharp put the Blades 2-0 up at halftime and despite a late Roy Beerens strike, Reading were left empty-handed.
“We faced a very good team,” said Stam.
“They scored two good goals and we couldn’t go forward because we weren’t taking initiative on the ball.
“We’re talking about the basic things that you need to bring to the game – what you need to do, how you need to start, the intentions that you have. If we’re not doing those things, you make it very difficult for yourself.
“We weren’t ourselves in the first half. We didn’t do things defensively and when we were on the ball and attacking, we weren’t good enough.”
Stam was forced into changes again with Jon
Dadi Bodvarsson and Garath McCleary joining the injury list so Mo Barrow and Tyler Blackett came into the side.
Sheffield United have boasted an imperious home record for well over a year and they got their tails up again during the first half.
Pressing Reading high up the pitch, they took the lead through a brilliant strike on 19 minutes as Coutts curled a wonderful strike into the top corner from just outside the box.
A defensive lapse from Chris Gunter then allowed former Royal Sharp to tap in at the back post to convert Mark Duffy’s cross to give the visitors everything to do after the restart.
The Blades would not relent and Vito Mannone was called into a couple of fine stops to keep the score down.
Stam introduced Paul McShane, Pelle Clement and John Swift to try and change the momentum and Reading set up a grandstand finish when Beerens tucked home with five minutes to play.
But the visitors could not snatch a late point and ended the weekend in 20th position.
Reading are back at the Mad Stad this weekend, hosting Middlesbrough on Saturday (3pm) before welcoming Nottingham Forest on Tuesday evening (8pm).
READING: Mannone, Gunter (c), Moore, Ilori, Blackett (McShane 55), Bacuna (Clement 77), Edwards, van den Berg, Barrow, Beerens, Aluko (Swift 66). Subs not used: Jaakkola, Richards, Kelly, Smith.
Goal: Beerens (85)
Yellow cards: van den Berg (56), McShane (57) SHEFFIELD UTD: Blackman, Basham, Carter-Vickers, O’Connell, Baldock, Coutts, Duffy (Brooks 73), Fleck, Stevens, Clarke, Sharp (Lundstram 81).
Subs not used: Moore, Lafferty, Carruthers, Wright, Donaldson. Goals: Coutts (19), Sharp (37) Yellow card: Brooks (90+4)
Referee: David Coote
Attendance: 26,265