Three and easy, Puscas

GEORGE PUSCAS’ fiveminute hat-trick turned this game to pile more pressure on struggling Wigan boss Paul Cook.

The Romanian striker showed glimpses of his famous Hungarian namesake as The Royals came from behind to cancel Joe Garner’s first-half goal.

First, he blasted home a penalty, followed barely a minute later with a clinical strike across David Marshall before the pick of the three, a nonchalant side-foot finish at the far post.

It makes it four wins in seven for new Reading manager Mark Bowen, who said: “To be honest, I was sitting on the bench and I had already got my excuses in my mind about how the game got away from us. I am delighted for George, he’s a 23-year-old from Inter Milan who has a big burden on him to score goals and he’s found it tough lately.

“He’s shown if we get quality service into him, he will score. I was hard on the players at half-time because I felt we hadn’t been good enough and asked them to show more character and bravery.” The game turned on the 79th-minute penalty when on-loan Chelsea defender Chey Dunkley was judged to have handballed.

That was despite referee Jeremy Simpson appearing at first to indicate Garner had fouled

Lucas Boye and was surrounded by furious Wigan players. Latics boss Paul Cook, who had earlier been shown a yellow, also remonstrated on the touchline, but did not criticise the referee.

“I’m not going to say something that will get me into trouble,” he said.