Lampard hungry for Christmas cheer

Anthony Smith • Published 16 Dec 2009 16:00 0 Comments

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FRANK Lampard snr is confident Reading can have a successful Christmas and put their relegation fears to bed.

Royals travel to Bristol City this Saturday lying 21st place in the table, just three points above the Championship drop zone.

Brendan Rodgers' side then host Swansea City on Boxing Day with a trip to Plymouth Argyle two days later making nine points up for grabs over the festive period.

And football consultant Lampard declared: "Where we are in the table is probably a fair reflection of things.

"But we don't want to be there, there are no two ways about it.

"You don't want to be in our position and it is up to us to get out of it and big factor will be improving home form.

"Christmas is an important time with games coming thick and fast so we've got to be on our mettle and we need to start wrapping up some points and getting up to mid-table.

"We want to be looking up rather than at who is behind us. That's why Christmas is a very important time - you can move out of it or step into the worse."

Last weekend's 1-1 home draw with Scunthorpe United summed up the problems facing Reading this season.

They dominated the game after Grzegorz Rasiak's opening goal but failed to build on their lead and conceded a late Gary Hooper equaliser.

Royals have now won just one of their last 20 league games at the Madejski Stadium.

Lampard fumed: "I keep talking about us having `nearly results' but in the end you can't keep being unlucky. It's no good keep saying we did well on Saturday when we drew. I can't have that one.

"Our away form is decent but out home form hasn't been so good and it's important that we keep a clean sheet in our next three or four home games.

"We've got to be strong at home, make sure we don't give goals away but get them at the other end."

But for now the focus is on the weekend's trip to Bristol City who boast a formidable home record of just one league defeat at Ashton Gate since December (3pm ko).

"It's going to be a battle but our away form isn't too bad," stressed Lampard. "We'll go into the game with confidence and hopefully everyone is fit.

"Having dropped points at home on the weekend we've got to be looking at three points. On our day we're better than a lot of teams in this division.

"We're not better than all of them because we're still building a squad here and hopefully in January there will be some movement.

"But we're as good as a lot of them and now we've got to prove it."

Strikers Shane Long and Simon Church are both available on Saturday to boost Royals' firepower while Ryan Bertrand has recovered from tonsillitis.

However, a number of first-team players have been struck down with illness this week which will keep Rodgers sweating.

In the meantime, Lampard believes some fans' expectations of the Royals this season could be too high.

"Look at the team, it's young and a lot of those players didn't play last year," he argued. "Maybe we're paying for that a little bit.

"Five or six players left before we came here and these players haven't had the responsibility of a lead role before.

"But gradually they are coming around and they will be okay."

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