Liam leads Reading to victory

LIAM MOORE says criticism from outside the club has not affected Reading this season.

Centre-back Moore opened the scoring for the Royals on Saturday, setting them on their way to a highly impressive 4-2 win against in-form Derby at Pride Park.

Sone Aluko, Roy Beerens and Mo Barrow were also on target while the hosts netted twice late on through Johnny Russell and Chris Martin.

That win, coupled with victory against Nottingham Forest in the previous game, lifts Reading up to 18th in the Championship table heading into the international break.

But Moore says the players were always confident they could turn things around after a poor start to the campaign.

“The belief has been there,” he said.

“Obviously we were disappointed with the results. We know our style of play will be difficult for some teams to match sometimes.

“When it works like it has in the last few days, it’s brilliant. But there’s still space for us to improve and kick on.

He added: “I said the same last year when we were doing well and we had people saying that we wouldn’t stay there and that we couldn’t sustain it.

“It’s just people’s opinions. It doesn’t affect what we do or how we work on the training pitch and what we try to take into a match.

“We’re a really tight-knit group here and we believe in what we’re doing.

“We’ve shown that by coming out the other side.”

As injuries continued to take hold of the squad, Jaap Stam made two changes to the team which beat Nottingham Forest as young left-back

Omar Richards made his full Championship debut.

Beerens also earned a recall to the side with Joey van den Berg and Sam Smith missing out through injury. Academy products Axel Andresson and Josh Barrett helped to fill the bench with the likes of Liam Kelly and Tiago Ilori still absent.

Derby came into the game on the back of four straight victories, but they found themselves immediately on the back foot as Reading raced into a 2-0 lead.

Moore broke the deadlock in the ninth minute, powerfully heading in from John Swift’s free-kick and Aluko quickly doubled the advantage, linking up with Swift before powerfully firing in.

The home fans were growing frustrated as Reading continued to dominate, and they made it 3-0 soon after the restart when Beerens latched onto a weak Curtis Davies backpass and rounded goalkeeper Scott Carson before tapping into the empty net.

Barrow was guilty of two misses before the hosts were gifted a goal when Vito Mannone’s pass out of defence was pounced upon and Russell made no mistake with his finish.

But back came the Royals, moving 4-1 up when Barrow finally got on the score-sheet, connecting with Dave Edwards’ low cross to sweep in.

Rams forward Martin slid in a late consolation, but it was Reading’s day.

“We know how well Derby have been playing in the last few games,” said Stam.

“Everyone knows they were the team in form going into the weekend.

“But we studied them, as we do every team, and we saw opportunities that, if we did well, we could take advantage of and make it difficult for them.

“And we succeeded in doing that.”

n Reading face league leaders Wolverhampton Wanderers in the first game after the international break on November 18 at Madejski Stadium.

READING: Mannone, Gunter, McShane (c), Moore, Richards (Blackett 76), Edwards, Bacuna, Swift, Aluko (Kermorgant 53), Barrow (Clement 90+4), Beerens.Subs not used: Jaakkola, Andresson, Barrett, Popa. Goals: Moore (9), Aluko (13), Beerens (54), Barrow (75)

Yellow cards: Gunter (32), Barrow (67), Mannone (84)

DERBY: Carson, Wisdom, Keogh

(c) (Pearce 8), Davies, Forsyth, Huddlestone, Johnson, Russell, Nugent, Lawrence, Winnall (Martin 64). Subs not used: Mitchell, Baird, Thorne, Weimann, Vydra.

Goals: Russell (71), Martin (90) Yellow cards: Winnall (23), Nugent (60), Johnson (81), Martin (84)

Referee: Keith Stroud

Attendance: 25,928