McDermott demands drastic improvement

Reading manager Brian McDermott has said his side need to improve, as they suffered their fourth straight defeat against Southampton.

The Royals went down 1-0 to the Saints, thanks to a second half goal from winger Jason Puncheon. McDermott’s side were second best for the majority of the game, with the former Slough Town boss highlighting the second half as ‘very poor’ performance. It leaves Reading six points deep into the relegation zone.

Speaking to the Official Reading FC website, McDermott said: ‘We have to be better than that, we need to combine a performance in all areas, everything needs to come together. It was the poorest we’ve played for a while. We’ve got a game on Tuesday to pick ourselves up. Second half I thought we’d really step on but we didn’t do that in the way I wanted.’

‘Anyone who’s seen us over a long period of time will know we’ve always reacted well in games. Normally we throw the kitchen sink at them but we didn’t today. So we’re obviously disappointed, we all are after a game like that. We know the League we’re in, we’ve got to keep our heads down, dig in and get on with it.’

We cannot put all of the blame on McDermott, as those players hardly looked interested yesterday. However, drastic changes need to be made if we are going to remain in this division and Brian needs to make those changes, or can see himself changed as a consequence.