Reading FC

Reading FC playing for the fans - says McDermott

By Jonny Fordham
December 01, 2012

Brian McDermott said his Reading team played for the fans as they were edged out 4-3 by Manchester United.

Hal Robson-Kanu fired Royals into an eighth-minute lead with a sweet volley before Anderson beat Adam Federici at his near post with a fierce shot five minutes later.

Wayne Rooney slotted home a penalty in the 15th-minute before Reading equalised when United fan Adam Le Fondre headed in from a Nicky Shorey corner three minutes later.

The goals kept coming as Sean Morrison nodded home another in the 22nd minute – only for Rooney to sidefoot home on the half hour mark and Robin van Persie scored the eventual winner in a crazy opening 34 minutes.

The home crowd have had little to cheer about this season, with just one victory in Berkshire, but they were treated to another memorable Madejski Stadium night.

And McDermott said: "I was proud of the efforts and that first half performance from our players.

“It wasn't just effort alone, there was quality as well in the way we passed the ball.

"It was an incredible game really, and we've had a few of those this season. We played for our supporters, they want to see us get the results and they will come.

“You see the confidence levels from our players, and look at the way we passed the ball and got crosses into the box. We caused them a lot of problems today and I thought with the late set play Morrison was going to score.

"I think we're becoming everybody's second team at this rate! But our fans are the most important, they can see the players never give up and we led Manchester United twice.

“We know what our agenda is in this league and we just keep going, now we move on to Southampton (next Saturday).

“There's no problem with competition and it's a different challenge for us.

"The crowd were really behind us in that first half, they saw some real good quality play.

“I'm disappointed that we haven't come away with anything, but that's the nature of this league.

“Last season we were winning game after game, this season we've just got to hang in there. We have to be different here and get the results whatever way we can.”

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I think a lot of the criticism that the players, management and owner is getting is very unfair.

Don't get me wrong, I can understand fans' frustration that we are losing leads and dropping points, but I've also no doubt that the set-up we have is what is best for the long-term future of the club.

Do we need to add in January? Yes, definitely. Would I rather see us go down than blow £20million on players for a punt? Again, definitely yes.

Now please do not read the above as a surrender to relegation or even as a desire to see us go down. Should we be relegated, I will be as devastated as the next loyal Royal. My point is that Reading is a club built on sound business & football principles and the progress we have made in 10years is largely based on this - Good infrastructure backed up by an owner/Chairman not making rash changes because a player/manager is not flavour of the month.

I think in the last 5-6 months, a vocal minority of supporters have lost sight of how far we have come in that time and what we have achieved in that time. I've no doubt had someone told us all this time last year that in 12months, we'd be 19th in the Premier League having just been involved in a 7-goal thriller with Man Utd; that person would have been openly mocked on forums not too dissimilar to this one.

So as has been mentioned by a couple, let's enjoy the ride, let's get behind the team, both in the stadium and outside. Reading Football Club is a proud community club and as its community, we should be supporting it as best we can.

URZ.

Ian2
03/12/2012 at 09:49

I agree with Smiffy's comments regarding thefact that we should all just enjoy the ride. Lets be realistic. i also agree with Poru....I no longer live in Reading but have supported them home and away for over 40years. Where you live doesn't matter, in fact, those of us who live miles away have to go the that extra mile (pun intended) to support the boys. For what it's worth I believe we will stay up.

up for debate, lost
03/12/2012 at 09:20

we will not have 20 points by xmas will be cut a drift by then and relegated by easter or before, the second half was crying out for guthrie to come on and add some quality and creativity to our midfield in the second half to try unlock utd, but yet again BM made predictable subs with little or no impact.. yet again laughable defending...

last chance saloon
03/12/2012 at 07:24

Smiffy i have been watching reading for 30 years. Sadly in that time i have seen them.go down a few times! Generally when we have gobe down we have failed to beat the teams in the bottom eight at home. So far we have played stoke and norwich at home and managed 2 points and one goal against them. Away we have played wigan, qpr and villa.. 1 point and 3 goals for and 5 against. Southampton abd sunderland will be in the bottom 8.. If you think.not beating them is important then please tell me who we should beat to get the 38 points or so we need to stay up!

Winnable games at home - west ham, villa, wigan, southampton, qpr, sunderland possibly swansea, west brom and Liverpool!! Desperate! Even if we win all those that is 36 points. Unlikely! we need to win 2 or 3 away surely.. We cannot keep dropping points like they dont matter. Points on the board!

By the way i was born in Reading! I live in Bournemouth now. So what.

poru, Bournemouth
02/12/2012 at 23:19

poru - we don't have to win one of the next two - I think we can do it, but you keep coming up with fictional targets you set from Bournemouth, which is pointless and quite irritating! There are still plenty of games to play and the gap to mid table isn't huge.

cav007 - I don't see a club in crisis. We gave Man Utd a run for there money and in the end were unlucky not to come away with a point. Only Spurs have totally outplayed us this season, so it is wrong and unfair to say we are a club in crisis. We have had bad luck, some bad defending, some poor decision making and too many draws.

It's a tough league and our only target is 17th place. We are by no means already relegated as some so called fans keep trying to suggest. I hope and believe that we can stay up, but whatever happens, I would rather enjoy the ride and have a season of premier league football and take it for what it is. We have Man Utd play at the Mad Stad, I would rather that than the likes of Scunthorpe or Doncaster, even if just for a season. Some people really need to lighten up a bit!

Smiffy, Reading
02/12/2012 at 22:48

Our defensive midfielders didn't cut out their runs on goal so why not try putting Guthrie in to add more variation. Yes, and neither did our defence but can't do anything about that with the squad we have. Painful to score some good goals and surrender simple ones. Our ability to frighten a team of ball players has carried over from last season but not the ability to stop them scoring once we've gone in front.

Bingley, Woodley
02/12/2012 at 18:17

Just some remarks by Fergie. "Reading played well today" "They gave us a really hard time of it today" "We could have been battered today" "We have got the players to rescue us" What a pity they did.

Forest Royal, Forest of Dean
02/12/2012 at 14:28

'once mighty Arsenal?'

Recently you were 4-0 up & lost against a 'once mighty Arsenal's reserve team ;-)

Dog Leg
02/12/2012 at 14:18

Pog can go back to Russia with the new owner. They are almost twins - lots of hype failing to deliver!

Tilehurst Ender, Spencers wood
02/12/2012 at 13:45

Yes, it was a good game but we still didn't get any vital points.

Among some very good performances from players there were some very bad ones, namely Feds and Pog when he came on. Feds is just not the keeper he was in the Championship and if McCarthy was fit then I think BMD would drop him. As for Pog, taking a famous Bill Shankly saying "he couldn't trap a bag of cement". He has no close control and for such a big guy his heading ability is dire.

Royals1871
02/12/2012 at 12:53

Well if that LOSS was for the fans who will the win be for then ? The Royal Family, The Pope!

Same old McDERMOTT same old excuses. You can be as proud of them as you want Brian but the fact is they had the lead twice and still end up losing and now 5 points from safety with Southampton up next, lose that and me thinks you will lose your job!!

Just My Opinion
02/12/2012 at 09:31

Sorry you can take as much courage as you like from this game its still a loss. Lets look at it properly someone has to take responsibilty for the state of the club and the way the team is playing. Tactics squad rotation, back room management decisions call it what ever you like, something is drastically wrong.