Royals boss satisfied with deserved point

Reading manager Brian McDermott has said he is pleased to get a point from yesterday’s game with Stoke, saying it was the least his side deserved.

The Royals found themselves behind at half time, with Adam Federici making a rare error that allowed Michael Kightly to score on his debut for the Potters. However, McDermott’s men pushed in the second period and got a deserved equaliser. Smart work from Noel Hunt and Garath McCleary led to the award of a spot kick and Le Fondre slotted to give the Royals an opening day point.

Speaking to the Official Reading FC site, McDermott said: ‘I think it would have been unjust if we’d lost but injustices are no good to anyone, you have to get results and we’ve done that. We wanted to win it after we got to 1-1, and I thought Ian Harte was going to score with his free kick, it was close and should have been a corner. But at 1-0 down in the 90th minute you have no choice but to take a point.’

‘Psychologically it is really good for us. Going behind knocked the stuffing out of us a bit and we found it hard to get going in the heat so we’ll take that today. You have to stay in games, we’ve done that many times, especially late on. Our fans know that and nobody was leaving early!’



Wiki page: Brian McDermott