Reading FC

McDermott: Reading FC will get over Wigan defeat

By Jonny Fordham
February 23, 2013

Brian McDermott said he will quickly move on from Reading's disappointing 3-0 defeat at home to fellow strugglers Wigan.

Arouna Kone scored twice in as many minutes at the end of the first half before Maynor Figueroa completed the Latic's double over Royals.

And with Pavel Pogrebnyak sent off for a lazy lunge on Figueroa, things went from bad to worse for McDermott's men.

But he said: "We have to write it off quickly. It won't affect our mentality, that never changes win lose or draw.

"My mentality is to go forward, train hard this week and prepare for Everton. There'll be a lot of reaction because that's what happens, but I don't over-react to any result.

"We've had a bad day and we lost 3-0 at home which we never do. For the first 43 minutes there was nothing in the game.

"We had a chance when Jimmy Kebe hit the side netting at 0-0 but then they scored with a nailed-on handball, it's difficult for the ref to see it but Caldwell admitted it himself to me after the game.

"The second goal was poor from us and we have to do better on that, it was our own fault. So we go in 2-0 which is a mountain to climb, then there's a third goal and Pavel gets sent off and it's getting worse.

"If Jimmy scores maybe it's a different game, their goal changed the game in their favour. There's lots we didn't do right but congratulations to Wigan, they were the better side."

Royals will not appeal Pogrebnyak's sending off, although McDermott insisted that his 19th-placed side were not getting the decisions in the Premier League at the moment.

"Pavel's sending off is the ref's decision whether it's yellow or red," he added.

"But I know we're not getting decisions, we should have had a penalty at Stoke. But we can't deny that Wigan were the better side. They played well and congratulations to them, it's hard to play them with ten men but we kept going and we've got 11 games to go.

"We've had a bad day but we've had many many good ones in the last three years, the players have done fantastically well, they've taken us to the Barclays Premier League.

"Most people would have said we'd be adrift at this stage of the season, but we're still fighting."

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HFH. Do we?

I would rather watch honest players working hard than prima donnas like "not good enuff" who thinks he can stand around pointing out directions to others.

Whether RFC stay up or get relegated I will not be renewing my season ticket next year.

This hoof and run is not for me. 3 seasons of rubbish - I've had enough.

McD is just wasting all the money on signing 3rd rate players - I can't believe he was a scout!!

well, well, well
26/02/2013 at 19:50

Well, Well, Well....so true...jumpers for goalposts and all that. But today is another world and the Premiership is where we want to be and where we want to stay. Miracles will have to happen though!

Robin Friday would still need a couple of pints before KO though if he was playing today!

Haggerty F, Haggerty R, Wallingford
26/02/2013 at 13:43

HFH - I enjoyed Div 4. Games played by real men on mud with a leather football.

Wednesday evening games in the winter against Workington or Rochdale were a true test for supporters!

This bunch won't have any scars to show their grandchildren - just coloured (pink?) boots!

What a bunch of .......

well, well, well
25/02/2013 at 23:32

Unfortunately the short stay of execution brought about by a couple of wins appears to have deluded many fans (and McD) in to believing we are good enough to stay up. We are so far behind the other teams in ability we were playing catch up from day one. When the window finally arrived for a few of new signings what did we get: two guys (Blackman and Carrico) who didn't even make the bench on Saturday and a couple of capable players in Akpan (still learning his trade) and Kelly (a tidy player who couldn't get in Fulham's team). Not exactly a huge improvement in the squad let alone the team.

One of our best players over recent weeks, with the exception of the Stoke game, has been Alex Pearce and he was dropped after one below par performance. Based on that premis over half the team would never play two consecutive matches. I don't understand McD's desperation to get Morrison back in the team. He is ok and will get better, but is not ready yet. I so want to be wrong but realistically this team are not good enough to move above the bottom 3 and will be relegated. I have been watching Reading for well over 50 years and can remember the old 4th division and crowds of under 2000 and I am not suggesting we haven't moved on enormously but we are not equipped for the premier league..sadly!

Haggerty F, Haggerty R, Wallingford
25/02/2013 at 22:44

I just saw his interview on Readingfc player. He looks like a beaten man devoid of any ideas. And again, he talks about all the good times in the last 3 years. How cone he reminds us at every opportuinty about the last 3 years, but when it comes to talking about a game we just lost, all he says is we move on quickly to the next game ? Our season comes down to home v aston villa, southampton and qpr, and maybe west ham away last game of season. Anything gained in the other games will be a bonus. McD has now put himself under imense pressure due to his tactics in the last game, hes lost his bottle.

Danny0367, Chorley, Lancashire
25/02/2013 at 21:14

Saturday presented us with the ideal opportunity to take a significant step away from relegation and to plunge our opponents into deeper trouble.

However, an appalling performance from the manager and most of the players he selected blew that chance and now it is us who have plunged deep into trouble whilst Wigan left the Mad Stad with 3 points and significantly increased confidence.

Pog's challenge may have been mad but wasn't half as stupid as the club wasting another transfer window signing players as hopes for the future rather than automatic first teamers in the present. So Pog is now suspended but equally he could have been out with injury and, with Roberts taking even longer to recover from injury than Kebe on a bad day, we have absolutely no one to replace him and play the role of lone striker. Blackman? Don't make me laugh, he couldn't even trouble our defence when he played against them.

As for those who say we are better off without Pog, they either know very little about football or don't bother watching our games properly. He works really hard, hassles defenders and has a much better touch than his critics claim. He has also proven that, given decent service, he can score goals. However, for large parts of the game he is left completely isolated with no team mate within 20-30 yards. When he gets the ball, he has to wait an eternity for support and even then is lucky if he finds more than two players pushing forwards towards the penalty area. The trouble is, McDermott himself appears equally blind to our failure to get players into areas where they can hurt our opponents.

Finally a message to McDermott: Stop your endless whining about officials and bad luck and start getting your players to make some of their own luck. And, as you are so keen to 'move on' stop trying to pacify us with all of your references to good times past. You only get points and PL survival by what you do in the future not out of sympathy for past achievements.

HARB
25/02/2013 at 20:02

Why has he started tinkering with a winning team?

During our good run of form since the Swansea game Pearce and Guthrie were main players, now all of a sudden Guthrie has just vanished again and pearce has been dropped (he is our best & a die hard defender).

Why should Pearce sign a new deal when he is being treated like he has been this season?

kelly, pearce, maps and harte should be the back four, morrison will be quality in time but is still young.

The Ledge and McAnuff have been poor and it's about time someone like Jonny Fordham took that question to McD over why these two seem undropable.

Mcleary should be given more game time, Akpan/Jem/Guthrie mid gives us energy and creativity. Leave Alfie as the lone man holds it up better than the pog ever did (Hunt is championship at best) with kebe and Garath on the wings.

RFC4EVA, reading
25/02/2013 at 13:49

Yes, a bad day at the office but until that idiot Dowd allowed that first goal, could have gone either way! He has to be the worst PL ref ever, cost us the playoff final against Swansea. Wigan came full of confidence after scoring 4 away last weekend and have players coming back from injury. I drove 200 miles, paid £32, froze my nuts off and nearly got killed by 2 idiots on the M25, great day!! Will still be back for the next one though!!!

Reading Fan in Brighton, Brighton
25/02/2013 at 13:37

Bad result. Looked OK for most of the first half but 3 goals in quick succession down to rank bad defending & decision making made it an impossible situation for us. Then Pog gets sent off and the fat lady is belting one out!

Of course after we are 3-0 down the normal Legs & McAnuff vitriol starts, yawn... face it only Feds & Kelly played at anything approaching well.

As for the substitutions to be honest once Pog got sent it didn't matter - suspect Kebe was being looked after and Karacan going off seems to be the default setting in order to change things. Akpan was sacrificed to get Le Fondre and suspect Legs & Karacan stayed on due to experience.

A day best forgotton - Situation has not changed still one point from safety just have one less game - A huge opportunity missed.

On another note I though Scharners shove on Karacan near the advertising hoardings was dangerous and went completely unpunished. Having said that love to have a player like Scharner in our squad!

Everton & Villa next - we have to to be better.

Robsy , Reading
25/02/2013 at 12:27

There is no hiding the fact that it was a poor Reading performance on Saturday, but it has come amid a decent run of form, so I don't think all is lost yet. We aren't doing it the easy way, but we need to keep the faith!

In some ways I am glad the Pog is banned as Alfie held the ball up as well as he did on Saturday and Alfie is a lot more likely to hit the net. It seemed a harsh sending off at the time, but Match of the Day showed that it was worthy of being a red.

Smiffy, Reading
25/02/2013 at 09:39

As I said on the previous thread, it was just a very very bad day at the office, where anything that could go wrong did.

That was the first time for yonks we have looked seriously off the space / totally outplayed.

I wholly expect us - under the most unlikeliest of circumstances - to go to Everton and nick a backs to the wall smash and grab 1-0 victory!

URZ!

Big P, Reading
25/02/2013 at 09:37

I was surprised when I saw both the team selection and the formation...was convinced Mcd was going to go all out attack but opted for the defensive...maybe that was him "tempering his attacking instincts" as he spoke about in the week??!

I can understand giving Morrison a chance after a decent performance at Man U but he was to blame for the second and rooted to the spot for the third.

It was a humiliating wake up call on Saturday...just as we were getting used to winning again.. and we have now lost the full 6 points to one of our relegation rivals.

The only saving grace of the weekend was villa and saints losing and we are still only 1 point adrift.

I thought that "all" we would need to do to stay up was win our home games against the fellow strugglers...now I think we need to pull off one or two surprises against the big boys.

Fishlips
25/02/2013 at 09:15

Great to have all you negative people back once again, where have you been since the end of December?

For all those people saying we should drop 4-5-1 you have now got your wish lets see what happehns!

Martin Cairns
25/02/2013 at 09:05

0 shots on goal, and 30% ball possession.

Thats what happens when you play 4-5-1 formation.

Its defensive formation, not an attacking one.

Danny0367, Chorley, Lancashire
25/02/2013 at 09:02

Always been the first to jump to the Manager and the teams defence, but this time I can't. The performance was awful. Brian should've come out and said so. There was very little to take from that performance.

The fans deserve better from the players and you in your interviews Brian.