Paul Ince praised his side’s response to a lacklustre performance in midweek, as Reading FC defeated Wigan 1-0.
A Tom Ince free-kick proved enough to separate the sides, with the forward curling in a left-footed effort.
He said: “It was [the perfect response]. Irrespective of if we won the game, drawn the game or lost the game, it wouldn’t have phased me.
“I said to the players, all I want is a bounce back from the game against Sunderland, and that’s what we got today. You can’t be too down when you lose and you can’t be too up when you win.
“Let’s move on, we’ve come to a tough place like Wigan, but so long as you put in a performance and compete, that’s what we did.”
Neither side were able to make an inroads in the first half, with chances few and far between.
However, the second 45 minutes saw a significant change in tempo, with both sides missing gilt-edged opportunities.
Ince said: “The game itself, it started a bit slow, but once we got a foothold of the game, we played some lovely stuff. Thoroughly deserved to be in front today to be fair, I’ve told the lads the disappointing thing is that we should have been two or three nil up.
“Got to kill games. If you don’t kill games, as you see in the last few minutes, Lang should score, Wykes doesn’t bang one over the bar, and we come off the pitch thinking why we haven’t won the game.
“Tom should have scored his second one, the one with the header. He’s got to score that from four or five yards, my daughter would have scored that.
“And Yak’s got to score to make it 3-0, and that’s game dead.”
The Reading manager confirmed Ovie Ejaria and Shane Long are expected back in training this week, both with a view to featuring in next Saturday’s squad.
He said: “We’re growing as a team. What the lads have achieved in ten games is amazing, because we’re talking about 13 first team players, who played ten league games.
“I don’t think there’s any club or team in the league who have done that, so what these boys have achieved is nothing short of amazing.”
