The Royals endured a difficult afternoon at Edgeley Park on Saturday, falling to a 3-1 defeat against second-placed Stockport County.
Jack Marriott cancelled out Kyle Wootton’s early opener, but Ethan Ennis restored Stockport’s advantage before the break. Jack Diamond added a third in the second half to seal the points.
The result leaves Reading seventh in the table. Here’s what manager Leam Richardson had to say when he spoke to Royals TV.
Richardson on the defeat
“Obviously a disappointing result. I thought first half we
weren’t us. We didn’t have any control at all without the ball, and when we did turn over the ball, our transitions were slow. We gave the ball away so cheaply, and good teams will punish you for it.
“I thought the first 45, 50 minutes were disappointing. They were the better team by a long shot, although we scored a good goal to get ourselves back into it.
“The third goal kills the game. It comes from our possession again, so it’s disappointing.
“We then started controlling more of the second half, and you wonder why we didn’t do that to start with. I thought we finished the game quite strongly and started to control large parts of the second half. If we’d possibly scored a goal, it would have been interesting.
“But I don’t think we really had that edge today that we have had in previous games.”
Richardson on taking responsibility
“I’ve got to be accountable, certainly. I’ll look at myself inwardly straight away – tactics, team selection, as you always do and be better for it next time.
“Although the result’s a tough one to take, the performance in the first half was tough to take.”
Richardson on giving the ball away
“It doesn’t matter how you play, what formation you play, who you play against or what level. If you give the ball away cheaply like that, with the connections that we normally have being really strong.
“It’s collective. It’s something we’ll look at and address like we always do. We always want to be a better team when we win and when we lose.
“Today’s a tough day and a tough result. The performance in the first 45 minutes was nowhere near good enough from myself and the players.”
Richardson on fighting until the end
“If there’s going to be a positive, I thought we fought until the end and kept going until the end. We possibly should have got something going towards the end, but it wasn’t to be.
“We’ll take it on the chin. It’ll be a tough night, but we’ll take it on the chin and look forward.”
Richardson on the defensive organisation
“We weren’t great without the ball. Our control and our distances weren’t great. We didn’t push the lines as well as we have done.
“We’re throwing a back four together, and coming to a place like this, you’ve got to be bang at it. Our distances weren’t great and they punished us for it.
“We rode our luck at times. We could have easily conceded and probably could have easily scored a couple as well.
“It would have been interesting if we had done, but today we haven’t. We’ve fallen short, and we’ll pick ourselves up and go from there.”
Richardson on Jack Marriott’s goal
“We always speak about how important he is. The longer we can keep him on the pitch and scoring, the better for us.
“We always try to find some positives with our process and what we’re trying to do. We know what the end goal looks like, so we’ve got to love the process. It’s fantastic that Jack scores again, but there aren’t too many positives today.”
Richardson on a full week on the training ground
“A clear week is always good. You want to get on the training ground, iron a few things out and hopefully get a few people out of the treatment room.
“We need our squad and our players on the pitch to challenge for what we’re trying to achieve. We’re at a part of the season where we’re without too many, but we’ll be stronger for today.”
Richardson on improving the away form
“More consistency, a little bit more belief, a little bit more thought about what we’re doing, and staying true to ourselves.
“We’ve had some really strong performances without possibly getting the result. Today wasn’t one of them.
“We’re very, very consistent with a lot of our actions at home, and we’ve got to turn that into away form as well.”
