Adkins: They were awful goals to concede

Nigel Adkins was not exactly impressed with his side’s defending, as the Royals were beaten 3-1 by Brentford yesterday.

We conceded two shocking first half goals, which proved to be our main downfall, as we impressed much more in the second, getting a goal back through Simon Cox. Brentford scored a third late on though, despite it looking like a blatant foul, it near enough killed the game.

Speaking to the Official Reading FC website after the game, Adkins said: ‘It`s frustrating, annoying because we`ve been in good form. Take nothing away from them, they are a good footballing side, but the top and bottom of it is you can`t give goals away like we have today.’

‘You’ve got to stop the cross and then defend the cross if it comes in. We can’t allow easy balls into the penalty area – there have been too many all season. We’ve identified it early, we need to be better, we will address it and we will work on it on the training ground.’

I’m glad Adkins has alluded to the fact we are being very soft when players are in our final third, as we are not tackling and instead, standing off and allowing the cross (i.e: the first goal). We will not make any good progress, unless we cut out these silly defensive mistakes.