McDermott pleased despite the draw

Reading manager Brian McDermott has admitted he is very pleased with a point in their game with Crystal Palace, considering his side had to play most of the match with ten men.

The 50-year old witnessed his side come from behind to earn a 2-2 draw at the Madejski Stadium, despite having Jason Roberts sent off just before half-time. Wilfed Zaha opened the scoring, before Kaspars Gorkss equalised and substitute Adam Le Fondre turned the game on its head. However, Glen Murray’s exquisite finish earned the Eagles a share of the spoils.

McDermott, speaking to the official RFC website said: ‘It’s not my view normally, but sometimes a draw is an ok result, and today that was a good point. I thought Palace played well and that was never going to be an easy game today, and we knew that. We didn’t get going in the first half, but I thought we played some super stuff with ten men.’

‘Once again you saw everything that is good about our players today, especially in that second half – we lost a man but we played some great football. I never try to draw any game, and even today we changed the shape and tried to be positive at half time. We haven’t drawn many this season so no-one can accuse us of not trying to win games.’

Even more pleasing for McDermott was that the point was even enough to win them the Championship title, as Southampton lost to Middlesbrough in the late kick-off Championship game. The former Slough boss is likely to start with Adam Le Fondre in this Saturday’s game with Birmingham, if Jason Robert’s red card is not rescinded.