The Royals find themselves back in the relegation zone after a 1-1 draw against Exeter City at St James Park on Saturday.
The Royals took the lead through Jack Marriott in the sixth minute, Marriott scoring
his sixth goal in consecutive matches. Former Reading striker Jayden Wareham netted minutes later to equalise.
With the draw, Reading find themselves back in the relegation zone. With pressure mounting on Noel Hunt, a win was needed to move us away from the drop zone. Here is what Hunt had to say, he spoke to the official club website.
Hunt on the performance
“I thought we were a little bit better than last week in terms of structure – in the second half especially. We had enough chances to win the game; we had two or three big chances in the second half. We finish with another draw.
“The boys are a bit down and they are disappointed they haven’t won the last two games. Rightly so, that’s the way we need to be. Off the back of that, it’s one defeat in eight. We are getting closer, we created three or four really good chances today, especially in the second half.
“We looked a bit more solid at the back, it’s just cutting out the mistakes in terms of young Ashqar [Ahmed], he has to hook that away early, and Matty [Jacob] just defend and don’t be too clever with it. We got caught and it cost us a goal. These young boys have to learn quickly, sometimes it is important that we don’t give teams a leg up.”
Hunt on Paudie O’Connor
“He has done enough training, but we needed to get him out. We contemplated starting him or bringing him off the bench, but we have to throw him in and see how long he lasts.
“He’s a warrior, I thought he was great today. From being out and not playing in eight or nine weeks, to come back and have a competitive game, it took him three or four minutes to get going but then he was fine.”
Hunt on Matt Ritchie
“We are getting boys back to fitness. We didn’t want to burn the candle at both ends with Matty [Ritchie], so we took him off to make sure he is OK. He wanted to stay out there no doubt, but I think it was a wise decision.”
Hunt on Joel Pereira
“He picked something up in training during the week so we will assess him and hopefully he is okay. He took a sore one on Thursday so hopefully he’s fine. We will give the boys the day off tomorrow and go again on Monday – fingers crossed he’s okay.”
