After being announced as Reading FC interim manager Paul Ince sat down with the club’s official channels to give his first interview as Royal.

Ince spoke about the quality in the squad, cleaning up the leaky defence, comparisons to Barcelona and what it takes to survive in a relegation battle.

Every word from the new Reading boss can be read below…

On his ‘whirlwind’ arrival:

Listen, it’s been a crazy last 48 hours but I’m here, there’s a job to be done. I’ve been asked to come in, help the team out. How long that’s going to be I don’t know. But I’m here to help the team out, here to try and get results.

I met the players on Sunday, they were in a good mood after the result at Preston - it’s always nice to get three points and we’ve done some work today. Can’t really do a lot because the games are coming thick and fast.

It’s hard to really try and implement what you want to do this week but next week we’ll have a full week on the training ground. But at the moment it’s about games, it’s about trying to get wins and that starts with Birmingham.

On his remit being very much focused on picking up points in the short-term rather than a long-term project:

That’s the most important thing. You can’t think about long-term in this game, no one can. I’m not one of those people, the owner’s asked me to come in and help the club. For however long that will be, I’ll have my standards, I’ll implement my style and it’s about winning games. We’ve got ten weeks to go, we’ve got a lot of games to play, a lot can happen. But we’ve got good players here, a good bunch of lads here. And hopefully, we can get the job done.

The last 48 hours all I’ve done is watch videos of the team, where we can improve, where we can get better. I’ve made them aware of that. The games come thick and fast but the next two weeks are Saturday-Saturday so we’ll have time for training sessions.

But I watched the first half against Preston and thought we were like Barcelona! There’s not a lot that needs to be done to this team, it’s fantastic playing wise. But there’s tweaks here and tweaks there that need to just get them…we’re conceding too many goals, -23 (goal difference), that’s your problem straight away.

So things that need to be worked on but they’re a fantastic bunch of players and looking at that first half on Saturday you think ‘wow, why are we where we are?’ But then you see the frailties, concede a goal straight after the John Swift goal and we looked like drawing the game. That’s something we need to address and we’ll do that in the upcoming weeks.

But I met the lads, great bunch of lads, they get on well. There’s a great spirit in this club, I met the staff, admin…it’s a lovely family club and it’s just great to be part of.

On the quality in this squad:

I think the most important thing is the goals - we’ve got to stop conceding goals. We conceded two against Bristol City, three against Coventry…we can’t be conceding two goals a game. That’s something we need to address and if we do that we know from a talent point of view with the likes of Lucas (Joao), Thomas (Ince), Junior (Hoilett) Yakou (Meite), (John) Swifty - who was amazing on Saturday.

We’ve got enough up front to cause problems. But if you don’t keep the back-door shut you’re always going to struggle. This is the main thing we need to address, this is what we will address. And hopefully we get some time on the training ground next week to show how this team can improve and keep this team and fans in this league.

On the help of Michael Gilkes and those around him:

I think it’s important when you come to a club and you’re not aware of the culture, the environment, you’re not in touch with the fans. Gilkes has got that, Liegterwood knows the club very very well. So yeah, I think it’s important to have these people alongside you.

I also think it’s important that you bring in your own people who understand how I work, the demands I expect from the staff, from the players, from everyone at the club. So there will probably be one or two additions over the next 48 hours which is important. But yeah to have Gilkes by side, Leigertwood is great, they know the club, they know the ins and outs.

It’s all about one big push for the next ten weeks or however long I’m here for, it’s about one big push. And if we can get a couple of wins then who knows how far we can go.

It’s good times. It’s a challenge and I don’t shirk challenges. I went to Macclesfield when they were bottom of the table. It was something that was just kind of thrown upon me and hopefully we can all come together and get the job done.

On drawing from his experience as a player and manager:

It’s funny because the game’s changed since I played but I’ve been in this situation before, I’ve been in relegation battles. I was there with Middlesbrough, I was there with Wolves. I got relegated with Wolves, I got relegated with West Ham as a young kid. So I know the experience and I know how much it hurts.

Those types of feelings we need to understand…to have relegation on your CV is never a nice thing. You always wonder ‘could I have done more, could I have done better?’ You don’t want those regrets this season. We’ll fight for the fans, the atmosphere against Coventry was unbelievable, the fans were amazing, I wish I was playing!

So we are fighting for the fans, we are fighting for everybody - people’s jobs are on the line here and we’ve got to understand that. So knowing what it takes, knowing what happens if you do go down, the ramifications - people can lose their jobs. I’m aware of this, I’m sure the players are aware of this. We’re going to fight tooth and nail to keep this club in the league.

On the Tuesday night clash with Birmingham City:

As I said, we haven’t done a lot of work. Not a lot is going to change from what happened on Saturday but it’s going to be a tough game. They went to Stoke on Saturday and got a 2-2 draw, Stoke are one of the teams who are supposed to be going for playoff promotion. So they’re a good team, we know how they play, they know how we play.

So it’s just about…these games…it’s on the day can we perform the way we need to perform? You’re not always going to perform great - it’s about picking up points. We’ve had four points in the last two games, can we keep building and building confidence.

That was our first win in about 12 - that’s a long time. When I look at these players, I look at this squad and think ‘two wins out of 20? With these players?’ Something can’t be right and the sooner we find what that is, the sooner we’ll start climbing up that table and putting in performances.

But we’re not always going to play well. Sometimes we’ve got to grind, sometimes we’ve got to have our bodies on the line like we did in the last 15 minutes against Preston - headers, tackles - that’s what it takes to stay up. We know when we get the ball we can play and we’ll create chances. It’s the other side of the fence we need to get sorted.

The way Birmingham play they’re quite direct, long throws, we need to deal with all of that. If we deal with all of that, we’ll have a chance of winning. 

On building momentum off the back of the Preston win:

No matter who you are, no matter how big you are, if you’re losing game after game after game…there’s going to be a concern. Even on Saturday, no matter how good a team you are, when you are holding on for dear life and you’re under pressure, you do pack it, you do kick it away, you do make mistakes because you’re not used to winning.

Now we’ve got that draw and now we’ve got that win, hopefully it will give us the confidence to go forward and win games. It’s going to go to the wire. We’ve got a nice little gap, but it’s going to go to the wire. We’ve got to be brave, believe in what we do and we’ll have great support from the fans, I’m sure we will, and fingers crossed we can get the job done.