Kevin Dillon may have inadvertently provided the extra motivation for Derby County to finish their dismal season in the Premier League with the first win in Paul Jewell's five-month reign and, in the process, drag Reading down to the Championship with them.
Dillon, assistant manager under Steve Coppell at Reading, suggested this week that the club were delighted to be playing their crucial final game at Derby, and not against, say, Chelsea, Portsmouth or Blackburn, before concluding: "Let's put it this way, if we can't beat Derby it will be hard to take. They have had a bad season. Paul has gone in there, but they had massive problems from the start and they have the lowest points in the Premier League."
Jewell responded by saying Dillon's comments "lacked tact". He said: "We've been sneered at, we've been laughed at, we've been ridiculed. I can accept it after the season we've had. But to be ridiculed and sneered at by certain people is not right. People can have an opinion but it's the way you put your opinion across. You would think Reading had been playing Champions League all these seasons instead of being down in the Championship and the Second Division. They've come from where Wigan [Jewell's former club] came from.
"If they can't beat us, and they go down, then they deserve to go down, Kevin Dillon is quite right there. But it was wrong to say it. I think he must have been caught off guard. It is something I would never do: make a comment about someone else's team unless it's positive. But for me, there are no positives coming out of his statement."
Jewell said that he knew Dillon well, and was disappointed that his comments could sour relations between the clubs. "Next time Steve [Coppell] rings up for a match video to watch, I shall say 'no'," he said.
"I think Steve and his staff will find the comments strange. I think Steve will be annoyed by it. He is a terrific manager and comments like that, at such a crucial part of the season, are ill-timed."
Derby will finish the season with the lowest points total in Premier League history whether they beat Reading or not, but Dillon's comments may have helped Jewell with his pre-match team talk. "Will I pin them up in the dressing room? Yeah. I've tried everything else," he said.
Reality check
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