Adam Federici has received Reading manager Brian McDermott’s backing after his poor start to life in the Premier League.

McDermott will stick by his No.1 goalkeeper at Sunderland tomorrow (3pm kick-off), despite the Australian gifting Chelsea a crucial goal in Royals’ 4-2 defeat at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday.

Reading were 2-1 up when Federici failed to get down quickly enough to keep out a long-range strike by Gary Cahill.

And on the opening day the season the 27-year-old had even more of a nightmare when Michael Kightly’s scuffed shot slipped through his hands in Royals’ 1-1 draw with Stoke City.

But McDermott is determined to keep faith with a player who kept 20 clean sheets in last year’s Championship-winning campaign.

He said: “The thing with the Barclays Premier League is that you’re under the microscope.

“Everything that happens on the football pitch – people talk about it. He will come through this and he will come through it stronger. People make mistakes, but you move on, you get stronger and you learn from it.”

Reading centre-back Alex Pearce also jumped to his team-mate’s defence.

He said: “Feds has hardly made a mistake in four years, so it just shows how good he is that when he makes one everyone jumps on it. He sets very high standards and he has such a strong mentality. There is no problem there. We’re fully behind him."

Federici is likely to face the threat of Sunderland’s new £12million striker Steven Fletcher, who joined Martin O’Neill’s side from relegated Wolves yesterday.

Sunderland began their Premier League campaign by drawing 0-0 with Arsenal at the Emirates and will be looking to put on a show in their first home game of the season.

McDermott added: “I was at the Stadium of Light years ago in the Championship and the atmosphere there is always very good. I’ve known Martin since he was manager at Wycombe in he Conference. He’s had a fantastic career and his teams are always well organised.

“We know the task ahead of us. We go there looking for a performance and if we keep performing the way we can then I know what will follow. The players are resilient, we never become too high or too low.”

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