George lightning strikes arrive with perfect timing
GEORGE PUSCAS finally showed why Reading paid a club record £7.5million, with an explosive match-winning hat-trick.
The former Inter Milan striker, 23, has found goals hard to come by recently and both manager Mark Bowen and the Romania star himself are hoping this will be a turning point.
With Reading trailing to a firsthalf Joe Garner goal and time running out, Puscas scored a penalty on 79 minutes, put the visitors ahead a minute later and sealed the win four minutes after that.
He said: “I’m so happy. Finally I got some goals. When you work hard, everything will come.
“It’s always nice when I score, if it’s one, if it’s two or three, but if the team wins that’s the most important.
“I’m also happy for the fans, it was a long trip, I scored and I made them happy with the victory. This will give me a lot of confidence and we have to keep going like this, we have some really difficult games ahead.”
Bowen said that Puscas (right) is a really popular character within the squad and his team-mates have been willing him on in recent weeks.
Bowen said: “As soon as he walked in that dressing room after the game, it exploded, all the players were cheering and clapping him, patting him on the back and you could see the beaming smile which comes from results as well as goals.
“He’s a young kid who has come in with a lot of expectation. All strikers are confidence players. I know he’ll come on leaps and bounds from today.”
The result piled further pressure on beleaguered Wigan boss Paul Cook, whose side have now picked up just two points from a possible 21 and sit in the bottom three.
He said: “I’m not going to tell you I’m going to turn it round. It bores the life out of me the questions you have to answer now. That’s football.”
Marshall 7, Sterling 6, Mulgrew 6, Dunkley 6, Robinson 6, Jacobs 6 (Naismith 64, 6), McLeod 6, Morsy 6, Pilkington 7 (Lowe 64, 6), Windass 6 (Gelhardt 84), Garner 7
Rafael 7, Yiadom 7 Miazga 7, Morrison 7 (Joao 60, 7), Moore 7, Richards 6, Pele 6 (Adam 76), Rinomhota 7, McCleary 7, Meite 6 (Boye 65, 6), Puscas 9