DADI DIGS ROYALS OUT OF TROUBLE

READING manager Jaap Stam was critical of his side’s defending despite seeing them come from behind to salvage a point against high-flying Derby.

Goals from Kasey Palmer, Andy Keogh and Tom Lawrence for Derby were cancelled out by strikes from Liam Kelly, Mo Barrow and Jon Dadi Bodvarsson in a highly entertaining game at the Madejski.

Stam said: “The goals that we conceded were not good, we gave away some cheap goals and that’s not the first time I’ve said that.

“Their set-up was to sit back in a 4-4-2 shape and wait for us to lose the ball before they went forward. They couldn’t really do that a lot in the first half but they scored because we didn’t decent well enough.

“After that we needed to get back in the game and we did that with great goals from Liam and Mo. Then they scored two easy goals, which was frustrating and we had to work hard to get ourselves back in it again.”

Derby opened the scoring in the the sixth minute with their first attack, Palmer slotting in from 10 yards after a cross from Lawrence was blocked by Mannone.

Reading were back on level terms in the 16th minute with a stunning goal that came out of nothing.

Sone Aluko’s attempted cross was only halfcleared and Kelly hit an instinctive effort on the halfvolley from 30 yards that sailed over the head of Scott Carson and into the top corner of the net.

The Royals took the lead just after the half-hour when Barrow streaked past Curtis Davies before slotting coolly past Carson.

The Rams were level three minutes later when Keogh tapped in from six yards after Davies had flicked on Lawrence’s free-kick.

Lawrence almost sent the Rams into the half-time break in front but his fizzing 25 yard freekick in the 44th minute was punched away by Mannone.

It didn’t take Derby long to take the lead in the second half with Lawrence wriggling through from the left wing to fire past Mannone within seconds of the restart.

Derby had chances to extend their lead, with Cameron Jerome pouncing on a poor pass from Leandro Bacuna before firing a 25-yard half-volley towards goal that was well saved by Mannone.

Reading grabbed an equaliser with ten minutes to go when Bodvarsson stabbed in at the second attempt after Carson had clawed away his initial effort from Barrow’s left-wing cross.

With five minutes remaining the Rams were reduced to ten men when Chris Baird was shown a straight red card for a crunching challenge on Barrow.

However Reading were unable to make their numerical advantage count and both teams went away with a share of the spoils.

Derby manager Gary Rowett was equally disappointed with his side’s defending.

Rowett said: “It was a really good spectacle for a neutral bystander, but for a manager you don’t want it to be full of quite so many swings in the game. We started really well and then we concede a really, really poor goal. Our decision making defensively has cost us a chance to win the game.

“I had a go at the players at half-time and it’s the first time I’ve done that all season and they responded really well to it. It’s just frustrating that we’ve caused our own problems again.”