READING FC assistant manager Alex Rae described Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to West Brom as ‘bitterly disappointing’, but said his players fought till the end.
Standing in for the unwell Paul Ince, the Scot explained: “We’re bitterly disappointed to lose the game, I thought we did enough to get something out of it.
“We had a slow start and we have to defend their first goal better than we did. We need to be more aggressive when we play, we need to get after them more.
“I think it’s fairly evident that the second half was a lot more [positive]. We created some good moments, with a little bit more composure we may well have capitalised on it.”
Rae praised the performance of West Brom goalkeeper, Alex Palmer, who made a string of reflex saves towards the end of the match.
However, he was also left bemused by some of the decisions made by referee Tim Robinson.
He said: “When you look at the second goal, the only person in the whole stadium who didn’t think it was a foul was the referee. Even if he [Gardner-Hickman] touched the ball, which he didn’t, then he just goes through the back of the player [Hendrick].
“He actually ends up on top of the player, so he just steamrolled through it. That kind of knocked the stuffing out of us because we’re obviously the team in the ascendancy, so it’s a tough one to take.”
According to Rae, the players have no intention of ‘downing tools’ and he expects them to bounce back on Tuesday night’s visit to Swansea.
The Royals were without first-choice goalkeeper Joe Lumley, who was ruled out due to illness. Rae hopes the stopper will make a return in Wales.
He also provided clarification over Ovie Ejaria’s absence from the matchday squad, saying: “Ovie trained this week, he had an issue yesterday. It was nothing major, but because he’s been out for a few weeks with a hamstring [injury], we didn’t want to risk him.
“We’re down to the bare bones in terms of players who are injured. We didn’t want to risk anyone because of the games that are coming in a couple of weeks.”
