'The way Birmingham play' - Paul Ince's first words as interim Reading manager

Paul Ince has identified Reading’s defensive problems as his main concern ahead of his first match in charge against Birmingham City.

The former Manchester United and Liverpool midfielder has been put in temporary charge after the relegation-threatened Royals sacked manager Veljko Paunović.

That came just minutes after Reading won for the first time in three months, away at Preston - and moved five points clear of the drop zone.

Ince has had a couple of training sessions with his new players and he says they are going to have to stand up to what Blues throw at them on Tuesday night.

“It’s been a crazy last 48 hours but I am here, there’s a job to be done,” Ince told the Reading website.

“They have asked me to come in and help the team out, how long that is going to be I don’t know but I am here to help the team try and get results.

“I met the players on Sunday, they were in a good mood after the result against Preston, which is always nice to get three points, and we have done some work today.

“You can’t really do a lot because the games come thick and fast and it’s hard to really try and implement what you want to do this week.

“But next week we will have a full week on the training ground, at the moment, it’s about games, trying to get wins and that starts against Birmingham.

“You can’t think long-term in this game, no-one can, while I am here I will have my standards, I will implement my style, we have 10 weeks to go, a lot of games to play but we have got some good players and a good bunch of lads here and hopefully we can get the job done.

“The last 48 hours all I have done is watch videos of the team, where we can improve and get better. I have made them aware of that.

“To be fair, I watched the first half