JAAP Stam has been nominated for the Sky Bet Championship Manager of the Month award for September.

Royals’ boss is one of four managers from the division to make the shortlist which was revealed at 6am this morning.

The others candidates are Newcastle United’s Rafa Benitez, Sheffield Wednesday’s Carlos Carvalhal and Alex Neil of Norwich City.

The winner will be announced tomorrow, but Stam’s nomination is a feather in the cap for the 44-year-old Dutchman in his first managerial role in England.

Stam led Reading to three Championship victories in September after home wins against Ipswich Town and Huddersfield and an away success at Barnsley.

Royals also drew with Birmingham City at home and won at Brighton in the EFL Cup third round.

The only setback came in a 4-1 loss at Brentford last week, which ended Royals’ eight-match unbeaten streak.

Nevertheless, the judging panel of ex-Ipswich Town manager George Burley, Sky Sports’ EFL League expert Don Goodman, EFL Marketing Director Drew Barrand, League Managers’ Association Director Olaf Dixon and Sky Bet Football Trading Manager Paul Lowery explained Stam’s selection.

“Sticking to your beliefs is an important trait in a manager,” they said.

“Stam’s focus on a possession-based game may not have won the Reading faithful over just yet, but a haul of 10 points from five games proves that it is working.”

Unfortunately, no Reading player was nominated for Player of the Month with Tammy Abraham (Bristol City), Shane Duffy (Brighton), Scott Hogan (Brentford) and Jacob Murphy (Norwich) making up the shortlist.

Meanwhile, Stam is determined to use the two-week international break to his advantage.

“It would have been nice to have the whole squad together to work with them for a couple of weeks to prepare for the next game, but that’s not the case,” he explained.

“So we’ll try to improve the players that are here with us within smaller groups on tactical parts of the games and how we want to play.”

Click here to see which Reading players are away on international duty.