Carroll lift for Royals

By RON LEWIS at the Madejski Stadium

NEW SIGNING Andy Carroll came off the bench to inspire Reading as they battled back for a point against Nottingham Forest.

Scott Dann fired in the equaliser within three minutes of Carroll (above) coming on for his Royals debut, having lifted his team-mates and the fans.

“He brought a pedigree, experience and leadership onto the field,” said Reading manager Veljko Paunovic. “We only met five days ago and he was already capable of influencing them.

“We got a fantastic boost when he came on the pitch. For 35 minutes he played very well and helped us a lot. We expect him to get minutes in the next couple of games, then we will see if he can start.”

Philip Zinckernagel gave Forest a wonderful start after four minutes with a brilliant individual goal. The Danish midfielder picked up the ball on the left-wing near halfway, ran into an ocean of space in the Reading half, before dummying his way past two defenders and firing the ball into the bottom corner.

Forest nearly extended the lead just after the interval as Lewis Grabban’s shot beat Reading keeper Luke Southwood but was cleared off the line by Liam Moore.

Former Weast Ham, Newcastle and Liverpool striker Carroll, 32, was brought on just after the hour, when Reading had won a free-kick. It was aimed at Carroll, but went several feet over his head.

Moments later, Carroll’s nod down caused panic in the Forest defence and from John Swift’s resulting corner, Dann stroked the ball home.

“We’ve created two or three chances that we should have scored from,” said Forest manager Steve Cooper. “There are no shortcuts to what we want to do.”

READING: Southwood 6; Holmes 6, Moore 7 (Carroll, 61, 7), Dann 7, Baba Rahman 7; Drinkwater 7 (Dele-bashiru, 7,3 6); Yiadom 6, Swift 7, Laurent 7, Ejaria 6; Puscas 6. Subs not used: Rafael, Camara, Ehibhatiomhan, Ashcroft, Abrefa.

N FOREST: Samba 7; Spence 6, Worrall 6, Mckenna 6, Lowe 6 (Bong, 31, 6); Yates 6, Colback 7; Lolley 6 (Figueiredo 66, 6), Zinckernagel 7 (Garner, 74, 6) Johnson 7; Grabban 7. Subs not used: Horvath, Carvalho, Mighten, Taylor.

MAN OF THE MATCH: Philip Zinckernagel (Nottingham Forest): Wonderful individual goal gave Forest the perfect start.

REFEREE: Andy Woolmer 7.