Town boss Mick McCarthy felt his side did enough to take something from their 1-0 defeat at Reading, but failed to take their chances or make the most of dangerous positions.

“I thought our performance was good, especially the second half,” McCarthy said. “I don’t think we did enough with the ball in the first half.

“I think we did enough to get something out of the game, but they had Johnny on the spot, who has scored and we didn’t.

“We didn’t score, fairly simple. We got ourselves in good positions as well but didn’t manage to work the keeper, which is disappointing. We didn’t score that’s the upshot of it, unfortunately.”

The Town boss wasn’t too harsh on striker David McGoldrick for his error which led to Reading midfielder Jake Taylor’s winning goal.

“He’s a fabulous striker, we should have come out in a line, we didn’t.” he said. “He was the one that was seeing the overload at the far side and he’s just got done with the run.

“Well, he didn’t get done by the run because he got the ball. I think he’s trying to head it to Gerks. If he was a defender he would probably have just put his foot through it and boot it out for a corner kick.

“I’m not blaming him because he does his defensive work. I’ll forgive Didzy that because he’s terrific.”

The 26-year-old was making his first start following his lengthy absence with a knee injury and McCarthy believes he was inevitably not quite at his sharpest.

“Overall, he worked very hard as he always does,“ he added. “I think he’s had some good bits. I think he might have got away from one or two of their defenders when he’s in his pomp and not still coming back.

“He’s been out for six months, hasn’t had much football. He did well, but maybe that sharpness isn’t there. Fine margins, but we knew that and he’s getting there.”

McCarthy was pleased with winger Paul Anderson, who replaced Elliott Hewitt at half-time, having missed Town’s first two matches with a hamstring injury: “He would have started from the start of the season because he’s been excellent in pre-season, and I think he took his form into the second half because I thought he played well.”

The Blues manager also had praise for Reading defender Shaun Cummings for diverting Tyrone Mings’s goal bound header onto the bar in injury time.

“It was great defending, wasn’t it?” he said. “Fabulous defending. There’s nothing Tyrone can do except go up and head it. It was a great header.

“Their defender had moved from the near post to the far post and has stopped it going in. Otherwise we’ve got a point.”

Reading boss Nigel Adkins was delighted to win what he felt was a hard-fought match: “It’s a pleasing game, a tough, tough Championship fixture.

“Today, we’ve come up on the right end of a scoreline. As we all know, it could so easily have gone to them, Shaun Cummings has headed one onto the bar at the end.”

Photo: Action Images

NoelTheDub added 21:46 - Aug 16 Mick Hyam and Skuse does not work they defend well but on the ball dont do it for me also you have to get our wingers on.Tabb and Nouble are only bench players at best good workers but no craft on the ball.Our back 4 is solid enough up front there is goals but we lack a balanced midfield 1 player to hold 1 to create and 1 or 2 attacking wide men.Mick you have to get out of this negative thinking as we are a bit more talented than we see especially away from home and give our more positive players a go not with 10 min to go.I know its only 2 games in but already I can see how our season is going its so predictable..

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Guthrum added 22:25 - Aug 16 As one of those who was actually there, I thought we matched Reading pretty evenly. Indeed, for a period early in the second half we were pushing them hard. A lot of Reading's attacks were worked backwards beyond the half-way line by our good defending. We had a couple of very good chances which just failed to go in. Reading's goal came from a slightly curious mistake by McGoldrick. 0 - 0 would have been a fairer result.

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Count_Arthur added 22:39 - Aug 16 Why did we get Sammon when we've just bought Banjar? And we have a creative player in Henshall but I fear he'll be played as much as Marriott is. It amuses me that all the people who slated Anderson 12 months can now see he is one of our more exciting players. We need to beat Birmingham and go into the Norwich game on a high.
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Sindre94 added 22:57 - Aug 16 Just imagine if Henshall had done that mistake that Didz did.... Its clear to me that Mick has his favourites, and Ive never ever heard him be critical of DMG, and fair enough, cause hes an amazing footballer
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wrightyblue added 23:52 - Aug 16 Big Frank should of played!!!
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cornishblu added 23:52 - Aug 16 Bottom line Mick we deserved nothing from this dreadful performance...and of you honestly think so the trust is starting to disappear Those once again who seem to be shrugging their shoulders obviously didn't go to the game. I know I'm banging on about it again but winning is a culture and a state of mind so no real surprises that we lost again after such a dire performance on Tuesday . Any positives from the game...Andersons second half performance ...nothing else. Didzy is getting the blame for the goal but I think that hides the real fact that sadly once again Gerken is exposed as a keeper that cannot control his area...does not shout instructions and doesn't breed confidence....that ball should have been his but he stayed on his line and we got sucker punched.....you have got to ask yourself why was didzy in the right back position???...where was the rest of the defence?? ....what do we need ...three players...one either left back or left midfield ...a play maker in midfield...that can hold the ball and make the telling pass....and a striker to come off the bench and change things. Why we insisted throughout the game of keeping the ball 70% in the air , so much so that even our own supporters were shouting hoof every time we got it....we never won any of the second balls and despite creating chances didn't convert them. This was poor...we need to wake up and quickly....the result against Fulham is already turning out to not quite be the fantastic result we were chirping about...if Millwall can beat them perhaps they weren't as good as we want them to be to justify the flap arpund the result. Marcus Evans ...you have put your faith in the man...now put your hands in your pockets ....a loss at brum and the horror of a loss against na&@ich will put us back years......time to wake up and smell the coffee.....see you on Tuesday COYB

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karls_dad added 10:49 - Aug 17 The simple answer is ...... we are just not good enough....yet! we just cannot be a one man band with Mc goldrick, sadly i can see a bit of a reality check come Saturday!
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battyblue added 10:52 - Aug 17 Mick hoof the ball Mcarthy enough said.
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battyblue added 10:55 - Aug 17 Can we sign a Johnny on the spot have not had one of them for a while
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Bluetone added 11:23 - Aug 17 Style, flair, creativity, panache. just a few of the things that we haven't seen much of since McCarthy's been our manager. Funnily enough in my younger days these were the very things our club was renown for.
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TimmyH added 14:38 - Aug 17 @Count_Arthur - re Anderson, he's one of our more exciting players as the rest are largely defensive minded other than Hunt who might be getting to old and Henshall too young and wouldn't be surprised to see Mick put him out on loan soon - it doesn't make Anderson good as he's one of the more exciting to watch and have to say I was one of the 'moaners' ...he did have his odd good game notably Huddersfield and has chipped in with a few goals which can't be said for his fellow counterparts but overall I'd say we need better quality than him out wide if we are to improve. Bench player for me.

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tractorkent added 21:02 - Aug 17 well said bluetone. We need creativity in midfield and not just workers
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brittaniaman added 09:07 - Aug 18 Just one thing Mick !! I would like to know why was McGoldrick playing in the position of right back at the time of the goal ??? Surely he should have been around the centre circle waiting for the opportunity when the ball comes out from the defenders ??? But who am I to question your methods !! just a fan.
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Count_Arthur added 09:39 - Aug 18 TimmyH - Well, that's one young player out on loan, you may well be right that Henshall will follow Marriott. I'll not apologise for the fact I've always rated Anderson and felt he will be, and has been, an asset to the team. I think he needs more games under his belt to settle into the team but to me it seems every creative player we've had under MM gets left on the bench our shipped out on loan. In pre-season Henshall looked the business, everyone around us was praising him and just because he made a mistake that cost us a goal he gets sidelined. McGoldrick made a similar error on Saturday but he won't be publically chastised (and neither should he). I do think MM has his favourites and Sammon will be one of them, just as Tunnicliffe was last season.

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