MEITE SHOWS HE IS UP TO TUSK AHEAD
Salsa star Onel is Havana ball as he closes on Prem dream
YAKOU MEITE admitted he enough elephant power to stomp all over Preston’s play-off surge.
The Reading striker scored his team’s first goal less than 24 hours after flying back from the Ivory Coast, where he had made his Elephants debut.
It was enough for Royals fans to trumpet his name before Mo Barrow’s goal ensured Jayden Stockley’s late reply for Preston was pure consolation.
“I was tired – dead tired – but I wanted to play,” said Meite (above) after helping lift Reading to 19th, four points above the drop zone. “I was very happy to make my international debut, but I only got back in time to train on Friday. When I scored, it gave me energy and I was running everywhere.”
Meite made his Ivorian bow in a 1-0 friendly win at home to Liberia on Tuesday, but there was a misunderstanding with Reading boss Jose Gomes over his return.
“The gaffer thought I was coming back on Thursday but I arrived on Friday,” he said.
“The fans were chanting that we’re staying up but we have seven games left. We can’t say we’re staying up yet – we need to do the job.”
After Meite had latched onto Barrow’s cross, Barrow himself coolly capitalised on a mistake by Ben Davies to make it 2-0.
Stockley volleyed home in injury-time, but Preston knew their 12-game unbeaten run was over. Boss Alex Neil said: “We are not going to sit here and feel sorry for ourselves. It’s more difficult to reach the play-offs now, but we have shown we are more than capable.”
READING:
Hernandez
ONEL HERNANDEZ is a step closer to achieving one of his dreams, but another remains tantalisingly out of reach.
The Norwich livewire’s second-half winner opened up a seven-point gap between the Canaries and third placed Sheffield United.
Hernandez knows he is on the cusp of making history as the first Cuban to play in the Premier League.
But the joy he will feel at winning promotion will be tempered by the fact the political situation in Cuba means no footballer plying his trade elsewhere can represent his country.
From the age of six, he lived with his mother in Germany before joining Norwich but remains fiercely patriotic.
With his side looking bankers to go up, the 26-year-old hopes the publicity generated by performing on one of the world’s biggest sporting stages will lead to a rethink by the Havana government.
“In Cuba, football’s not a big sport. Boxing, basketball and American football are bigger,” he said.
“But if I play in the Premier League, which everyone watches, maybe I can change that.
“One day maybe it’s possible to play for my country. I just have to wait. We have a lot of players who play in different countries and we want to go back and play but we’re not allowed.”
Hernandez’s 54th-minute winner, the result of some dreadful Middlesbrough defending, turned the tide of a game which the hosts had dominated before the break.
But despite Boro’s early pressure, Hernandez insisted he always believed Norwich would make it seven wins in a row.
“When I look at my team-mates
MATCH STATS
REF: ATT: before games, I see fire in their eyes,” he added. “We want promotion so badly.
“Of course, we’re in a good position but we can’t think about our lead because it is not an impossible one to lose.”
Boro’s momentum is very different. They go into tomorrow’s home game against Bristol City, out of the top six for the first time since August 9 and bidding to avoid a fifth straight defeat.
There was little wrong with their display until Hernandez struck. Then all their familiar failings came to the fore.
“I sound like a broken record but we’re struggling to score goals,” said Tony Pulis, whose future at the Riverside is looking increasingly in doubt.
“We pressed them, we harried them, we worried them a little bit,” said midfielder Adam Clayton. At halftime, we felt the game was there for us. The traps we were setting were working . We just needed that goal.
“But they started playing with confidence after scoring. They are top of the league for a reason.” MIDDLESBROUGH: NORWICH: MOTM ONEL HERNANDEZ (NORWICH)