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Our first win of the season! We are through to the second round of the Carabao Cup after a 2-0 victory against Birmingham City.
Liam Moore captained the side, and Paul Clement made plenty of changes from Saturday’s game against Nottingham Forest. Yakou Meite scored our first and a late free kick by John Swift secured our place in the second round which will give us confidence going into the clash with Bolton on Saturday,
Clement was very pleased with the victory and told the official club website and Get Reading, “I’m really pleased – it’s our first win in a while. Overall I’m happy to be in the next round – there are lots of positive things.
On players making their debut
“A few players that made full debuts today. It was a clean sheet for Sam Walker, John O’Shea came on at the end, and Marc McNulty played from the start.
On Reading’s attacking play
“Our attacking play was good and we created a lot. I would have liked to be more comfortable, because at 1-0 you can always smell a chance coming for the other team – and they did have a couple of chances before we got our second.
“But our two goals were excellent. The second was a dead ball, a lovely strike, and that’s something that John practices.
“And I liked the first goal particularly. We split them apart with some really good movement.”
On areas of improvement
“We have lots to improve on still. I saw loads of things that we have to get better at. We will play against some really good teams this season and we’ll have to keep improving all the time.
“Our togetherness and unity is going to be really important for us this season. When someone dips in form a little bit, someone else needs to be there. And that competition for places is healthy.”
On the Bolton game
“We’ve got to put in another performance on Saturday to get us up and running in the league.
“We are at home again and the support of our fans has been great.
“The fans are starting to see the identity of the team and I think they quite like it.”