JAAP Stam believes Reading FC have got their mojo back following tonight’s victory over Fulham.

Roy Beerens netted the 49th minute winner from a rebound after John Swift’s initial penalty had been saved.

But Royals fans were forced to endure a nerve-wracking finish when Liam Moore conceded an 89th minute spot kick for a foul on ex-loanee Lucas Piazon.

However, Ali Al-Habsi managed to keep out Chris Martin’s attempt to seal a dramatic win and end a run of back-to-back Championship defeats to Derby County and QPR.

Stam, whose side climbed back up to third in the table, said afterwards: “It’s not easy for us to win every game in the league, we are not there yet.

“But if we keep playing like we did today we will win more games.

“We’re realistic and sometimes you lose a couple of games in a row, but it’s about how you bounce back and keep the spirit within the team.

“We were confident we could win the game, as we were before Derby where I thought we should have got more. But due to our own mistakes we lost that game.

“Fulham also make it difficult for teams with the quality they have, but today we made it difficult for them.

“We worked hard for each other and got the result.”

Stam was forced into a late change of personnel after Yann Kermorgant felt ill before kick off and could only make the bench.

As a result Stam selected a starting XI without a recognised striker, but with Garath McCleary, Beerens and Swift all leading the attack.

It worked a treat as Fulham struggled to cope with Stam’s men for much of the contest.

“Yann Kermorgant was going to start up front with Roy, but he was feeling ill before the game,” explained Stam.

“But Roy has played up front most of the season and so has Garath.

“We wanted to play in a way that would make it difficult for Fulham. We’ve played that way before and we wanted to press them high up the pitch.”

Stam may have been delighted with the result, but he was far from pleased with the manner in which they scored the winner.

Royals have now won 11 penalties this season, converted five and missed six.

But, like tonight, of those six missed spot-kicks, five have been scored on the rebound.

Stam admitted: “It’s a bit of a nightmare at the moment.

“It looks as though our players train to score from the rebound. It’s a bit stressful and whenever we get one we’re thinking ‘oh no, not again.’

“It did happen again and it’s a good thing players are there every time to finish it off.

“Then at the end of the game it was a great save from Ali Al-Habsi to get us the three points.”

This Saturday Royals host Neil Warnock’s Cardiff City who were beaten 1-0 at Championship leaders Brighton tonight.

But Stam warned: “Just because we won tonight it doesn’t mean we’re going to beat Cardiff.

“They know how we play and you have seen teams like QPR come here and defend, so we need to be creative.

“And if you look at the state of the pitch it makes it difficult for us to play our own game.”