Brian satisfied with professional display

Reading manager Brian McDermott was very satisfied with his teams display against Sheffield United, despite the disjointed performance in the first half.

The Royals had a great start to the FA Cup fourth round tie, with Noel Hunt opening the scoring after just six minutes. Mikele Leigertwood doubled the lead just before the break, before Noel scored his second in the second half to put the game beyond any doubt. Garath McCleary then rounded off the scoring minutes later, in a professional display.

Speaking to the Official Reading FC website, McDermott said: ‘It’s been a good day when you consider what’s happened in the cup – a couple of teams from the Barclays Premier League have gone out at home. We knew it was going to be tough today but I thought we did the job.’

‘First half I was a bit agitated which is unusual for me, I didn’t think we quite got to the tempo of the game & pass it quick enough. We were waiting for things to happen so we had a few words at half time and we were much more clinical. Second half we defended well, we didn’t look like conceding a goal and scored a couple of nice ones ourselves.’

We didn’t really get out of second gear at all throughout the match, but in the second half we were much improved. United had a good spell in the middle of the first period, but in the second half, they didn’t give anything. The standout players for me were Garath McCleary and Noel Hunt, with both pushing for starting places in the league.