Reading FC boss calls on ‘surprise’ side to ‘enjoy pressure’.

Reading manager Noel Hunt has asked his side to ‘enjoy’ the pressure of competing for promotion as they approach the final 13 League One games. The Royals are only three points away from a play-off berth after winning 2-1 against Wigan Athletic on Saturday, their sixth consecutive win. Reading has already earned more points at this stage than they did last year, and they last finished in the top half of any level during the 2020/21 Championship season, with Andy Yiadom the lone remaining player. Hunt wants his young and inexperienced squad, which has previously battled relegation, to prosper as the season’s’surprise gift’.

The former Republic of Ireland international won the Championship with Reading in 2012 and only finished outside the top half of a league once with Reading, during the 2012/13 Premier League season. “We look forward to every game, they’re all big games now,” Hunt stated before of tonight’s meeting against Exeter City. “Where we are, you must enjoy the pressure. We haven’t felt this much pressure at the club in terms of finishing at the top of the standings in a long time. “I keep telling the boys we are the surprise package. Nobody anticipated us to be here; we simply have to keep doing what we’re doing in our own unique way, pushing ourselves on games and taking it one at a time. We don’t get carried away; we stay focused.”

In October, the Royals defeated Exeter City 2-1 at St James Park, recording their first away win of the season.

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