Doyle hoping for Premier League repeat

Reading striker Kevin Doyle has declared he will never get tired of repeating himself.

Many pundits had tipped the Royals to struggle this term following last season’s amazing Premier League debut, which saw them just miss out on a UEFA Cup spot.

The Republic of Ireland striker personified that success with a goal-haul he admitted had exceeded even his own expectations.

And although he had yet to find the net going into tomorrow’s trip to bottom club Bolton, Reading have already maintained their previous high standards by drawing at Manchester United, narrowly losing to Chelsea and beating then-leaders Everton.

Doyle said: “Our aim is to do as well as last year. It won’t be easy and if we get into the top half of the table again we would be absolutely delighted. That’s where we were last year and if you do it once you want to do it again. Anything less and you will feel disappointed.

“We have a better run of games now than the first three of the season so it is up to us now to get up there.

“I want to score as many as I did last year. I did better than I had expected and my aim is to do as well this time. I got 13 league goals so I want to get that again.

“For us to do as well as last year would actually be a bigger achievement because it is always harder to do the same again. The amount of money teams have spent this summer, even by the teams that have come up, is more than we have spent.”

Doyle scored twice in Reading’s 3-1 success at the Reebok last season, including a penalty equaliser. Bolton midfielder David Thompson had tried to put him off that one – by bursting a balloon as Doyle ran up.

He recalled: “It was something I only saw on the television afterwards. The other lads saw it and heard it but thankfully I didn’t. If I had missed it wouldn’t have been nice but I could laugh about it as I had scored. It was a good idea though. Clever – but I didn’t hear it.”

Bolton have yet to win since that April reverse and new boss Sammy Lee’s record this season is played three, lost three.

Doyle knew from his own experiences with the Republic of Ireland that it takes time for a manager to get his ideas across, especially as Lee has switched from the 4-3-3 formation favoured by Sam Allardyce to 4-4-2.

He said: “They have played one formation for four or five years so I’m sure it will take them time to get used to it.

“With Ireland we totally changed our formation and for three or four games we didn’t play well. But the manager stuck with the formation and we haven’t been beaten for six months now. We have won our last couple of games and put in some good performances. It just takes time to adjust.”