DANNY Williams believes the poor pitch at Madejski Stadium is hampering progress under Reading FC boss Jaap Stam.

The threadbare playing surface was heavily criticised by Stam and his players after Tuesday night’s 1-0 victory against Fulham.

That fixture came only three days after tenants London Irish RFC hosted Ospreys Premiership Select in a British & Irish Cup clash.

And midfielder Williams says the amount of traffic the pitch has to cope with due to the groundshare agreement with the Exiles is starting to show, and that the bobbly surface does not help them play Stam’s possession-based football.

He told the Chronicle: “I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say too much, but it doesn’t help us because we’re a team that wants to play football.

“Look at the pitch at Derby County on Saturday, it was unbelievable and it makes it much easier for us to play out from the back.

“Admittedly, we made a mistake in that game doing it, but we also make it difficult for the opposition.

“Even in the Fulham game there were times when we played out from the back very well, you could hear them become frustrated because they didn't know what to do.

“But the thing is you can’t take many risks on this pitch at the moment.

“We don’t want to be conceding stupid goals. The pitch doesn’t help us, but we’re trying to do our best.”

Stam also criticised the playing surface on Tuesday night when a Roy Beerens goal secured a first win in three Championship.

Reading have another home fixture this Saturday when they host Neil Warnock’s Cardiff City (3pm), and Stam warned: “Just because we won on Tuesday 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.”

Reading have lost only twice at home this season – to Aston Villa and QPR – and Williams insists the full backing of supporters will be crucial for the visit of Neil Warnock's Bluebirds this weekend.

“Beating Fulham was a massive three points for us and I thought the crowd were really good as well,” said the 27-year-old USA international.

“It’s important they get behind us. We are all happy and positive after a win and it’s a massive help when they come out and make some noise and get at the referee.

“Some decisions went against us at Derby last weekend because they had a lot of fans there making a lot of noise, so sometimes referees get intimidated.

“Our fans certainly helped us on Tuesday.”

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