HE’S JOSH AMAZING
But Ince keeps cool after win
PAUL INCE refused to show any emotion despite a sensational late Josh Laurent winner which sent his Reading side five points clear of the drop zone.
The Royals boss remained cool on the touchline during only a second victory in his time at the club.
Laurent let fly with a stunning curling shot 12 minutes from time for his first goal of the season.
And former England midfielder Ince admitted: “I will celebrate when we stay up – but until then I have nothing to celebrate.
“I told the players ‘concentrate’ as they were using up so much energy celebrating.
“It was an amazing goal, a wonder goal. If you want a 1-0 win it should be a goal like that. You wouldn’t have ever seen me scoring goals like that!
“I think we have a long way to go but we know what we have to do.
“We dug in. We showed our fight. There is a sense of fight, togetherness and spirit.
“It was probably the perfect performance apart from missing so many chances in the first-half. We should have been 3-0 up and it could have been easier on the ticker.”
Reading missed a hatful in the first 45 minutes.
Tom Ince was denied by Thomas Kaminski after controlling the ball well from Tom Mcintyre’s cross.
Andy Yiadom saw a low effort saved by the Blackburn keeper after a decent move while Lucas Joao was also foiled by Kaminski.
Ovie Ejaria then went through one-on-one with Kaminski, following a Scott Wharton error, but could not convert while
Laurent was denied again after a classy John Swift touch.
And it looked like Rovers would make them pay as they started to take control in the second-half.
They should have scored on 73 minutes as sub Bradley Dack’s close-range effort was kept out by home debutant Orjan Nyland only for Sam Gallagher to somehow slip with an open goal in front of him.
Blackburn have failed to score in four of their last five games to seriously hit their play-off hopes.
And Laurent hit them with a beauty to give Reading a huge lift.
Rovers manager Tony Mowbray said: “I haven’t got many thoughts other than disappointment we did not score.
“You can’t win football matches if you don’t score.”
READING: Nyland 7; Yiadom 7, Morrison 7, Holmes 7, Mcintyre 7; Rinomhota 6 (Swift 32, 7), Drinkwater 6; Ince 7, Laurent 8, Ejaria 6 (Hoilett 74, 6); Joao 6 (Meite 85).
Subs not used: Southwood, Dele-bashiru, Dann, Barker.
BLACKBURN: Kaminski 7; Lenihan 7, Van Hecke 7, Wharton 7; Buckley 7 (Dack 60, 6), Rothwell 7, Travis 7, Giles 7; Khadra 5 (Pickering 25, 6), Gallagher 5, Dolan 6 (Hedges 60, 6).
Subs not used:pears, Johnson, Rankin-costello, Brown.
Josh Laurent. Strong display in midfield and superbly hit longrange winner.
REFEREE: James Linington 7.