Alex Pearce says that he is extremely grateful with manager Steve Clarke

Reading captain Alex Pearce says that he is extremely grateful with manager Steve Clarke, who not only restored him to the first-team but also the captain’s armband as well.

The Royals managed to reach the fourth round of the FA Cup after a 1-0 win over Huddersfield Town. This has to go down as one of the few positives in a campaign that is looking likely to finish without any.Clarke has been out of work since leaving West Brom back in 2013. Being out of work for almost 12 months is extremely difficult for any manager since the chances of getting another job decreases rapidly beyond the stage.

However, the 51-year-old appears to have been convincing enough to suggest that he would make Reading as potential play-off contenders next season. Any progression beyond the fourth round of the FA Cup is more positive news for the club. Pearce says that the former Chelsea assistant manager is a breath of fresh air and that players enjoy working under him. The club are expected to have a key summer transfer window where make the decisions that they make will be key towards their promotion aspirations. Reading narrowly missed out on promotion back in the 2012-13 season, but this time they finished closer to the relegation zone.

“He’s been a breath of fresh air. He’s brought some new ideas to the team and we’re looking more solid that’s for sure.Everyone is enjoying and relishing it at the moment, and we’re all on the same wavelength.You do get that normally with a new manager but this has been the biggest effect I’ve seen in my career with everyone taking to it. You have to give credit to Steve Clarke and Kevin Keen for that.His first objective was to make us more solid and to stop us conceding so many shots at our goal and he’s done that,” said Pearce.