Coppell Looks To Burnley Following Gillingham Win
Last updated : 23 February 2004 By Rob Cooper
Coppell is still taking his football one game at a time despite the growing belief amongst the fans that the Royals can achieve a top-six finish this season.
Despite having a mediocre season, Reading will go fourth in the league if they beat Burnley tomorrow night and Sheffield United fail to win. Proof indeed that the league this season really is wide open.
Yet Coppell affirms that the Play-Offs are "not on the agenda" as we move into the final fifteen games of the season as he chooses instead to focus on one game at a time.
But the Royals boss must take heart from Saturday's performance, Shaun Goater got his name on the scoresheet once more, his sixth goal in seven matches. Whilst at the other end much-criticised Marcus Hahnemann won a few supporters back over with an important penalty stop.
Following the
disastrous defeat at the hands of Rotherham two weeks ago, the Royals were certainly looking for the hard-working professional performance that they managed to deliver.
Commenting on Saturday's game Coppell enthused: "After Rotherham away that was a cracking win. When you have a result like the 5-1 you have to get back to basics and we did.
"We're a side who wins and loses and we've got to learn to get wins in games we've been losing or drawing."
A few weeks ago 34-year-old forward man Shaun Goater was receiving a lot of criticism from the Reading support. However, after some top recent displays the fans are chanting 'Feed The Goat' once more as he points us towards the top six.
Goater's opportunist strike won the Royals the game. Perhaps a few weeks ago the veteran Bermudan forward would have fluffed his lines but these days there is no stopping him.
"Even when the header went through to him I thought he would not get there," remarked Coppell, speaking to the official site.
"He got his big toe there, there was a moment's indecision and Goater got there."
The Royals face an important five days with Burnley and Sheffield United visiting the Madejski Stadium. Six points would firmly cement Reading in the top six, but two Rotherham style defeats could spell the end of the Play-Off dream. It really is that fragile.
