Mowbray praises Royals performance

Middlesbrough manager Tony Mowbray has praised last week’s opponents Reading, admitting his side couldn’t break the Royals down.

The 48-year old has done a fine job at his boyhood club and has made them genuine promotion contenders this season. However, there good start to the season has tailed off as of recent, winning only two of their last nine games against Millwall and Nottingham Forest.

Mowbray told the GazetteLive.co.uk: ‘”We had a lot of the ball and we played a lot of the game in their half but we need to be cuter and a bit more clever to make the most of our opportunities in and around the box. They are well organised with their two banks of four and we knew what to expect but for all our endeavour we couldn`t get past that.’

“We didn`t quite have the guile to break them down.I don`t want to make excuses but maybe mentally we weren`t bright enough. There wasn`t enough creativity and that`s what seemed to let us down because up to the final third I thought we controlled the game for long spells. There`s not much you can do about Ian Harte`s free-kick because it was fantastic.’

The reverse fixture between the two sides at the Madejski Stadium finished a goalless draw, which Boro had the best of. Despite dropping down to eight position in the Championship, they are only out of the play-off places on goal difference and have a game in hand on seventh placed Brighton.