NELSON Oliveira’s injury dominated today’s pre-match press conference with Reading FC boss Jose Gomes.

The on-loan Norwich City striker is ruled out for around four weeks after picking up a ‘significant’ hamstring injury in last weekend’s win at Ipswich Town.

But goalkeeper Emi Martinez is still in with a chance of being fit for Saturday’s home clash against Wigan Athletic (3pm ko) after suffering an ankle strain against the Tractor Boys.

On top of injuries, Gomes spoke in depth about Reading’s survival battle, his football philosophy, managing the club’s debt and the ‘fantastic’ backing of the fans.

Every word from the Royals boss right here.

Gomes on injury-enforced changes against Wigan: “Nelson definitely, Emi we will see if he’s ready or not. Hopefully he can train tomorrow. If he feels okay he will start.

“Otherwise we have more players and goalkeepers. When the market opened we could not think the new players would solve the problems but by the players who started the season. Those words are getting more strained now but the group are showing a very good spirit. They are together and fighting for Reading, all the players are giving a very good answer.”

Gomes on the possibility of losing Emi Martinez through injury and Nelson Oliveira’s impact: “When you are near the bottom and lose a lot of times then you bring in a new goalkeeper who plays, you keep clean sheets and you pick up points, it’s normal people associate that with the keeper.

“In the other case we cannot hide Nelson has scored three goals in six games, and important goals regarding points. He scored at the end of the Blackburn game which we won.

“For everything that has happened to him, the serious injury to his face when he pushed himself to play when the doctor told him it was better not to. People like that. That’s how you conquer their space in Reading. First they have quality and second they have good spirit.”

Gomes on restricted options up front with Jon Dadi Bodvarsson and Sam Baldock also sidelined: “If you ask me if I’d like more solutions I would. But we don’t have time to cry, just count our games and prepare for the war. Now we are preparing for Wigan and we are ready for the next challenge. There are 11 serious battles left with a beautiful target at the end.”

Gomes on a tough run-in: “Yes, it’s tough, but sometimes the difference between winning and losing is so small. We cannot assume that because team ‘A’ beats team ‘B’ and team ‘B’ beat team ‘C’, that team ‘A’ will beat team ‘C’. It’s not mathematically logical, we cannot use this in football and especially in the Championship.

“The difference between the teams is very small and that’s what makes it interesting.

“The Championship is maybe the most balanced and difficult league in the world. Before the season start about 20 teams assume they will fight for promotion. If they assume this, they plan and bring in players for that.

“At this moment a lot of teams start feeling a bit frustrated. We just need to look at ourselves and be better game-by-game and avoid our previous mistakes. That way we will increase our level. If we do that it doesn’t matter about the other teams or whether we play against Norwich or Ipswich. We must keep the same spirit.”

Gomes’ views on Wigan’s midweek defeat at Derby County: “One of my analysts went there and I watched the game. In these last four or five games the same thing happened with Rotherham. A lot of teams are changing their systems and players. I don’t know if it’s the pressure or exactly why. They know about their own problems.

“I just see a lot of teams changing a lot and thinking about different solutions, so sometimes you have surprises. A team could play 4-4-2 for six games then change to 3-4-3 or 5-3-2 and we realise that now.

“But we know the players and what managers expect from them, so that is our guideline when studying our opponent now. But our focus remains on our team. Some thing we can improve, but we must keep the good things what we are doing.”

Gomes on his changing approach to games: “My philosophy means nothing compared to the results we need. Points are very important in this moment. More important than anything, any player or any idea is to win.

“So how can we win? If you see your players are not comfortable doing one thing and arren’t comfortable enough, sometimes it is better to give different solutions they can easily achieve to gain more confidence without losing your philosophy.

“What we did, especially when playing from the goalkeeper with a goal kick, we ave them a different solution and they are more comfortable. In all the games where we score, afterwards and when under pressure from the opponent, when we recover the ball we must give the first pass to another player from our team.

“It seems a very simple thing but sometimes when you are defending near your box and when you recover the ball you just want to kick it far. But this is not enough, we need to pass the ball and be patient.

“So two things: Offensive transition. The moment we recover the ball make a connection with a striker or winger or hold the ball there to ogive time. Then we must be more patient with the ball by passing it. If we do that the opponent will put fewer balls into our box.In the Championship you have the ‘fight moment’ and the ‘football moment’. To achieve the football moment you must be in a good position to fight. Sometimes we cannot shift to the ‘football moment’. We see this when the team are defending deep and trying the get the ball out of our box.

“If you press and don’t do it right, the opponent catches you in the middle and puts the ball in our box which we cannot participate for the first ball. So we cannot find the ‘football moment’ because we are just fighting.

“This squad wasn’t made just to fight, it was made to play football. We need to shift to another football moment and hopefully we can do good things. So patience on the ball and good passing when we attack.”

Gomes on the week ahead: “There is no point thinking about Leeds now if we don’t win against Wigan. All the focus is on Saturday, it’s the most important game. Like I said after Ipswich, if we win we will have the same points but we will be in front of them. We have to focus on what we can control”.

Gomes on achieving back-to-back Reading FC victories for the first time this season: “We must do it. Saturday will be the big day.”

Gomes on the race for survival: “We must win on Saturday. QPR are not out of these positions. But we don’t know what will happen on the other pitches. We just need to control what’s in our hands. I must give the maximum to my job and so much the players, coaches, the analyst, everybody around. I really believe if we do we will achieve what we want. Our future depends on what we are doing today and how we prepare. The energy and way we believe our job will help the club move from this position.”

Gomes on injuries and players stepping up: “I can sit here and cry about the players I don’t have, but it won’t resolve the problem of the injury. The other option is to find solutions with the players we have and help those players. We mustn’t think about wat we don’t have, but to try and be better with the players we do have.”

Gomes on Mo Barrow’s form: “We score a very small number of goals. Maybe if you score 50 like West Brom you have more players scoring. We just have to score more because players have all the freedom to go and attack.

“When things are not working everyone’s confidence goes. We just need to help the players to find that confidence to get in the box and shoot more. Sometimes they have time to shoot and they don’t. It’s a very simple thing, if we shoot more we score more.”

Gomes on Reading FC latest figures revealing a £21m for the past financial year: “We cannot run away from this problem. If it’s a club problem it’s my problem and we must counter it as we prepare for next season by finding players for that. We must respect this and like every manager I must find loan players like the five we signed to help us and try to sell other players.

“It will be the same as we did in January when 12 players left and we brought five loan players in with very good financial agreements with their clubs. Reading doesn’t pay anything for some of them, they are very good agreements.

“In the summer we must do the same thing by helping the club reduce this debt. I could say it’s not my problem but it is.”

On the impact of five loan players signed in January – Emi Martinez, Nelson Oliveira, Ovie Ejaria, Lewis Baker and Matt Miazga: “It was a club decision, not a personal one. The players are doing very well. But like I said before, the solution is not only from the loan players but the ones who started the season. They are giving a fantastic answer as you could see in the previous game. The team spirit we feel right now is because the players are giving everything they can.”

Financial backing from the club’s Chinese owners: “If the owner is putting in money because the club has spent too much and is in debt, it’s a bad sign. But the good sign is the owner has money to put in.

“The biggest problem could be if our owner doesn’t have money to put it. We have to solve this problem, but we know the owner is ready to help the club if we need it, but we must also respect Financial Fair Play.”

On backing of the fans: “The fans are fantastic. I think they are like a team. They follow the improvement of the team. When players do some things better there is more noise and more support. The more the players do the more the fans help. Last weekend was amazing especially when Barrow scored. The noise they made was fantastic. In that moment you could see there were 1,500 making noise.”

On English fans in general: “They are the best in the world. I cannot say anything against Reading fans, nobody can. Maybe this season they fight for promotion but you are near the bottom of the table they go to the stadium to support the players, even when they don’t win. You complain about the fans? Why do you complain? You must give them a more comfortable chair. They really love the club, they have passion, they travel distances to support the team, they are amazing.”