Paul Ince Not Too Down On Reading Performance At Blackpool

Paul Ince suffered his first defeat as interim Reading manager with a 4-1 defeat against Blackpool at Bloomfield Road.

Reading went 1-0 up through Lucas Joao and it looked like our good form was going to continue but Blackpool equalised through Marvin Ekpiteta to take it to half time level. Gary Madine then gave the home side the lead on the hour mark. The points were secured when Shayne Lavery and Josh Bowler scored late on.

Results went our way with Derby County and Peterborough both losing so we remain in 21^st. Barnsley did pick up points so they now move to 22^nd, six points behind us.

Ince felt that it was a harsh scoreline for the performance that was put in, he spoke to the official club website and Berkshire Live after game.

Ince on the game

“We got the first goal and we looked comfortable. When we played our football we cut them open. But we gave away a poor first goal – we came out not marking, the keeper comes out and it’s 1-1.

“Then the second one was direct from a corner – and you’re left scratching your head. It was a bad result, but not a performance we should be too despondent by.

“We know how they play, they play it long up to Madine and get it to Bowler and Hamilton out wide - nothing came as a surprise to us.

“And it’s never a 4-1 game. At 1-1, if we score the next goal I think we go on to win the game. And we were in the ascendancy, playing nice football, creating chances. But errors cost us again.

“They took the lead and we had to try and get back into the game and push and take some risks near the end. That ends up with them scoring two more. So the scoreline was harsh.

“We’ve got one of our best midfielders playing right-back, we’ve got our right-back playing left-back, we’ve got an attacking wide player playing as a holding midfielder, we’ve lost our goalkeeper for the rest of the season – this is where we are.

“We’re not going to get disheartened. It was great on Tuesday after a win, everyone was buzzing. But today was another game and we got nothing.

“So there are a lot of things we need to address, a lot of things we need to be better at. We’ve not been here a week yet – but the lads will have a couple of days off and we’ll start again and we’ll get as much into them on the training pitch next week as we can.

“Every team is fighting down there. There will be weeks when we lose and other teams win and there will be weeks when we win and others lose. We’ve got to keep our belief and do our job. We’ve got to keep believing.”

Ince on Hein’s injury

“He fell in his house and took the ligament off his bone in his thumb so they’re talking four to six weeks out if he doesn’t need surgery or two months if it does.”

Ince on being top heavy in attack

“If it was about scoring goals I think we’d stay up but in the defence you look around and think how can you change it. We couldn’t even go three at the back so there are a lot of things we need to address and get better at. I’m not despondent. I said to the players keep your heads up because there is a long way to go.”

Ince on other injuries

“Dann has started training so is about a week away. Laurent is back on the grass this week but probably not ready for Millwall. Holmes should be ready though, fingers crossed. He did the injury in the warm-up against Birmingham. He got through the game but he suffered a grade two in his glutes.”

Ince on having a clear week

“It’s tough as the same 11 players have been playing the same games. The demands I’m trying to put into them is a lot of work. Five games is a lot in the past two weeks but they’ll have a couple of days off and then we’ll start again.”