Gomes: We were so courageous
JOSE Gomes hailed his gutsy Reading players as they went down with a fight against Manchester United.
A penalty by Juan Mata and a composed Romelu Lukaku finish in the first half put paid to the Royals’ hopes of a Cup run to help lift morale.
Reading can now focus on trying to avoid relegation from the Championship with renewed confidence.
“Looking to the performance, I am very proud of what my players did,” said recentlyappointed manager Gomes, who is looking for his first win.
“They showed courage to put our process on the pitch. They press very high, they recovered balls in the offensive midfield. They created goal situations.
“It’s not easy to come from the situation that we are in and show the intensity and courage, and good ideas, positive ideas, positive football.
“So, we should I think have more than double than Man United. We get 61 per cent of ball possession. We have four, corners, they have just one, so we produce.
“Performance but the result is not the same. We didn’t show what we produce. It means that it is missing in my team like a killer instinct.”
The scoreline, though, was not a true reflection of the game with United’s caretaker manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer conceding victory flattered his side. “Reading made it really difficult for us,” he said. “We never had a kick in the first five minutes, they just kept possession and we weren’t cohesive enough in the pressing.”
The Royals arrived at Old Trafford without a win in their previous 10 matches, but proved a handful. Lukaku netted his third goal in as many games in first-half stoppage time, but things could have been different had Danny Loader and Callum Harriott done better with fine chances either side of the break.
But Reading’s lack of quality in the final third allowed United to head to Dubai for their warm weather training camp fresh from a fifth win.
Alexis Sanchez’s strike from distance was the only moment of note until confusion reigned in the 20th minute, when Fred slotted home after collecting a return pass from Mata.
The linesman indicated offside, but referee Stuart Attwell held his finger to his ear as he received information from the VAR – the kind of communication lacking inside the ground, leading fans to jeer as the delay continued. There were 125 secfive onds between Fred’s strike and the decision to award a penalty, with Omar Richards adjudged to have fouled Mata in the build-up and the Spaniard stepping up to score.
Reading began to probe, with Loader wasting their best chance after going past Sergio Romero, but going so wide that the United goalkeeper was able to block him off.
Harriott tried his luck from distance, but just as Reading’s hope began to grow along came Lukaku to extinguish it, keeping his cool when meeting a pass from Sanchez to round Anssi Jaakkola and roll into the net. “Two-nil flatters us because they played some great stuff, then again we could have had three or four towards the end,” added Solskjaer.