Reading manager Steve Clarke said Wednesday night’s win over Albion was a crucial result in helping to ease their relegation concerns and praised his players for their tremendous work rate throughout the 90 minutes.He told Readingfc.co.uk, “It's a big win for us. We spoke long and hard before the game about replicating the desire and energy from the weekend, and getting a couple of goals, and we managed to do that tonight.
"Brighton were just below us in the league so it was important to get some distance between us and them, and more importantly to get a bigger gap away from the bottom three.
"We created a lot of chances, and at half time I felt we should have been out of sight. My one criticism was that we didn't make it more comfortable and go two, three, or four goals ahead.
"You always have that little feeling, when you're not on a great run, a little nervous, and the referee gave a penalty that personally I felt was embarrassing and never a penalty.
"For five minutes we lost our way but we dug deep, showed resilience, came through and deservedly got the winning goal.
“I've made a number of changes in recent matches, when it doesn't come off I get criticised, so I'd like to think one or two people will say well done on the changes, because it worked!
"Saturday was a tough game on a heavy pitch, but I've got good staff and you could see tonight we were ready."
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Albion manager CHRIS HUGHTON felt that Reading used the conditions to their advantage on the night and says there is still plenty of work to be done before the Seagulls can feel safe from relegation.
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He said, “Certainly with the way they set their team up, they have a lot of power and pace in the side and you’ve got to match that.
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“It was certainly better in the second half; we gave ourselves a really good chance by getting ourselves back into the game, but conceded too quickly afterwards and at that stage it was going to be a difficult evening. The pitch is very uneven; they played to their strengths and were better than us on the day.
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“We knew the type of game it would be and that they would go from back to front fairly quickly, play off the front and look to use that power and pace.
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“We needed to play a type of game that would not allow them to press us in certain areas but we allowed that on too many occasions.
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“We’re not safe, not by a long way, and probably in the morning I’ll be grateful for the nine-point cushion but at the moment I’m annoyed at the result.
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“It was a hard-fought game and summed up what the Championship is about. We haven’t got the results away from home, but no-one has beaten us by a big scoreline.
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“Certainly in my time here in previous games nobody has beaten us by more than one or two goals and we got two good draws away at Cardiff and Sheffield Wednesday, so we’ve got to get that formula right away from home; we’re not there yet but we’ve got to work as hard as we can to get there.”[h=3]ALBION V WOLVES
[/h]SATURDAY 14TH MARCH, KICK-OFF 3PM
[h=3]ALBION V NORWICH
[/h]FRIDAY 3RD APRIL, KICK-OFF 3PM
[h=3]ALBION V BOURNEMOUTH
[/h]FRIDAY 10TH APRIL, KICK-OFF 7.45PM
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