Reading FC legend Graeme Murty had some praising words for Reading FC under 21s after his Sunderland side won a thrilling contest to make the Premier League 2 play-off finals.
The Black Cats dominated the first-half and took a 2-1 lead into the break with a double from right-back Ellis Taylor, while Jayden Wareham scored for Reading.
Two goals in two minutes saw Reading take the lead in the second-half with Adrian Akande’s goal quickly being followed up with a spectacular free-kick from Matty Carson.
Reading hearts were broken in the 99th minute when Taylor sealed his hat-trick to take the game to extra time before Trey Ogunsuyi netted in the 120th minute to put Sunderland through.
“I take my hat off to them (Reading),” said Murty.
“In extra-time it gets a little bit skewed because of their sending off, but I’ve got to take my heart to Reading.
“I thought that when we handled the 10 minutes of the second half, I thought that we were going to accelerate away from them, but they’re relentless and they’re physically intense and they’re imposing and they’re very, very good at what they do.
“Some really good players and our fellas have been in the test and they’ll be challenged in terms of their belief, they’ll be challenged in terms of how they performed against that type of game, but as a learning experience for them to stand up to it again.
“For them to show the resilience required to dig out a result when maybe our A game didn’t work was outstanding. I take my hat off to them. I have nothing but praise for them today,”
“I felt actually for the Reading players.
“You could see it was just too much for them at the end, too much for them to take, but although I feel sympathy for them, once again I have to give praise to our lads for continuing to go, continuing to do things in the right way because I thought we still moved the ball really well.
