Preston North End 2-3 Reading: Paul Clement wants win to be catalyst
- Published
Paul Clement's Reading remain in the Championship relegation zone but rise one place above Preston to 22nd.
Reading boss Paul Clement has urged his side to use their victory over Preston "as a catalyst to move forward".
A late winner from Leandro Bacuna gave Clement's Reading their first Championship win of the season.
Sam Baldock had opened the scoring for the Royals but the hosts levelled eight minutes later as Daniel Johnson's effort beat keeper Sam Walker after taking a wicked deflection off defender Liam Moore.
Tiago Ilori restored Reading's lead, only for Preston's Callum Robinson to make the score 2-2 with 15 minutes remaining, tapping in after Josh Earl's initial shot, before Bacuna's winner nine minutes from time.
"We haven't had that winning feeling in the league for a while, so it's great," said Clement.
"We are very, very happy and we've got to use that as a catalyst to move forward."
Leandro Bacuna scored his first goal for Reading since November 2017
Reading, who had not won in the Championship since last April, had started the day at the bottom of the table.
And the visitors nearly fell behind after 18 minutes when Preston's Tom Barkhuizen's powerful header from Robinson's cross struck the inside of the post.
"We had to work hard for it because it was a very close game, but it's those margins which has been all season," added Clement.
"Fortunately we managed to get those little details right and it saw us over the line."
With the match seemingly heading for a 2-2 draw the Royals boss introduced 21-year-old Josh Sims on 79 minutes.
And the midfielder made an instant impact two minutes later, providing the assist for Bacuna's winner.
"I came here three years ago, almost to the day, with Derby and we'd drawn the first four games and lost against Leeds," said Clement.
"We had four points going into the international break, but then we beat Preston and went on a fantastic run. I told the players that story before the game.
"We've got to keep going now. Every day we're working on improving."
Preston North End manager Alex Neil said:
"It's obviously disappointing. I did think we deserved something from the game but if you need to score four goals at home to win it's never good.
"We did create enough chances to win the game and we should have scored more goals but we didn't take those chances.
"Defensively we need to be better though and their second goal was particularly disappointing for me and the third came when we were trying to win it."