'It's not about me': Paul Ince looks ahead to his return to Blackpool with new side Reading

The 54-year-old brings his Reading side to the Fylde coast on Saturday after taking charge of the Royals on an interim basis last week.

Ince, who hasn't held a management role since his departure from Blackpool in 2014, replaced Veljko Paunovic last week.

The Serbian coach was sacked barely an hour after overseeing a 3-2 victory against Preston North End last week.

Ince, meanwhile, got his reign off to a winning start on Tuesday night with a 2-1 home win against Birmingham City.

Despite their back-to-back wins, Reading remain down at the wrong end of the table, although their buffer to the bottom three now sits at eight points.

The former England and Liverpool midfielder left Blackpool in January 2014 after less than a year in charge, becoming the club’s fourth-shortest-serving manager.

Under his management, Blackpool won 12 out of 42 games and, at the time of his sacking, the club had won just two points from their last 12 games.

Ince, who has reunited with former Pool assistant Alex Rae and his son Tom, who is on loan from Stoke City, doesn't want to make too much of a fuss over his return.

“Me and Alex had a great time at Blackpool and I was at QPR to watch them play on Wednesday night,” Ince said.

“But it’s not about me, it’s about the players on Saturday. It’s about going up there to get three points.

“It was a good start for us on Tuesday night, but we are going to be under pressure as a team.

"There is a nice little gap as it stands, but it means nothing. We’ve got to try and keep winning games and drag other teams into it.

“We have so much natural attacking ability in this squad, but the best teams get back into shape – and we’re not there yet.

"We’ve got Blackpool this weekend and we’ve had very little time to work with the players on the training ground still.

“When you’ve got the same 11 players playing every game, the Championship is demanding – it’s a bruising, bruising league.

“So we can’t do a lot with them on the training pitch – they’ve all got cuts and bruises and knocks from the last game and that’s what it takes in this league.

"So we have had to take it easy this week. After Saturday, we have a full week of training which will be good.”

Ince added: “We’re going into a game now feeling confident. We have a mental toughness about us, a belief in us. But we also have a lot of work to do on the training ground.

“When you win games, the belief grows. And the fans are going to be so important because we’re not going to win every game.

“So we go to Blackpool off the back of two wins on the bounce and we have to be confident, but we can’t be complacent. There is a long way to go.”

Addressing his return to management after eight years in the wilderness, Ince added: “It's great winning games and you think ‘I’m glad I’m back’, but the next 13 games are going to have challenging times.

“There are going to be times when I question whether I need the sleepless nights worrying about picking teams or the stress of injury worries. That’s the tough bit that I’ve not missed.

“But getting out there and trying to help these players win games, it’s a challenge. And I’ve always been up for a challenge.”

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