READING FC manager Paul Ince said he was ‘proud’ of his players’ after they exited the FA Cup with defeat to Manchester United.
After a determined first-half display to keep the game goalless, United struck three times in quick succession to take the tie away from Reading as Andy Carroll was also red carded.
“You’ve got to be proud of the players,” said Ince.
You know when you come to places like Old Trafford that you have to ride your luck. They put balls in our box, had one disallowed.
“That’s the first time I’ve managed under VAR so I was quite pleased for it in the first-half.
“You have to ride your luck to get anything and to go in at 0-0 there was a belief and we had a chance at the back end of the first-half. If that goes in we go in at 1-0.
“We gave them their goal, it was poor marking from our midfield and we let Casemiro go through, it was a wonderful finish. Then they were up for it and in the ascendancy.”
Ince lauded the character his team showed after going a man down as they were able to grab a goal when Amadou Mbengue got on the scoresheet to reduce the deficit.
He continued: “Let down isn’t the word. If you look at the first one over in the corner it wasn’t actually a foul.
“The linesman didn’t flag for it and the United players were walking away for a goal kick. The referee couldn’t wait to get his yellow card out, I’m disappointed with the referee.
“After that he made a foul on Eriksen and had to be careful. The last one he tries to pull out, but once you’ve been booked you can’t be making those tackles.
“The referee couldn’t wait to turn around and give him a second yellow but to be fair we probably played better with 10 men because we had to to try and get back in the game.
“It wasn’t about my reception, it was about the players and the 3,000 fans that travelled up. I’m proud of the way the players fought and never gave in, they didn’t let our fans down. Hopefully the fans are proud of us.
“We’ve now got to take that into our game against Watford.”
