The Royals picked up a point against automatic-promotion-chasing Bradford City in a 1-1 draw at the SCL Stadium on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The visitors took an early lead through Jake Beesley before Udoka Godwin-Malife equalised for Reading in the second half to ensure the points were shared.<\/p>\n
Here is what Royals boss Leam Richardson had to say when he spoke to Royals TV after the game.<\/p>\n
Richardson on the performance<\/p>\n
\u201cI think for 70 minutes I was really pleased. I thought we were the better team and in control.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce we scored, for whatever reason, we seemed to take a little bit of a backwards step and started making different decisions, which I\u2019m disappointed with.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe controlled so many large parts of it and did a lot of good things, and then when we scored, we seemed to start making different decisions. It\u2019s something we\u2019ll look at and something we\u2019ll address.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richardson on turning performances into results<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the level of performance that we\u2019ve delivered now across eight league games and four cup games has been at a good level.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s still room for improvement in what we do, and we\u2019ve got to start turning these performances into really positive results now.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re unbeaten in a number of games and we\u2019ve got some good individual performers at the minute, so the longer we can keep that going, the better. We will evolve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richardson on where the team can improve<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are so many more positives to take. It\u2019s better standing here and playing really well, while still looking to get better and trying to turn certain draws into wins and wins into stronger wins.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re always trying to get better in certain areas. I\u2019m trying to get better all the time and trying to lead the team to get better, because our metrics and our numbers at the minute are very good.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe players want to get better as well, which is great. I\u2019ve got a really good group of players who are trying so hard. We\u2019ve had another really strong training week and it\u2019s a game where, when we score, we should go on and win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richardson on responding to the early goal<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we started the game well. I think it was their first attack. It\u2019s a diagonal ball which he kind of mis-hits, and then we don\u2019t defend the box as well as we\u2019d like.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom there, I thought we responded really well. We probably played large parts of the game in their half. It\u2019s just in the final third where we need to be a little bit better, have stronger decision-making and probably stronger connections within that.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that\u2019ll come. Again, I thought we came out in the second half and were excellent. We started the second half terrifically well for 20 or 25 minutes, scored a good goal and probably deserved to score.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom my point of view, you then want to go and win the game, stay strong and keep controlling it. But we played long too quickly and too soon for whatever reason, and that\u2019s something we\u2019ll look at.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re playing the team top of the league, competing very well, and we\u2019re disappointed not to come away with the win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richardson on matching Bradford physically<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve been together now for two or two-and-a-half years, with the same team doing the same thing and the same repetitive habits, so you can see that you\u2019ve got to compete.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain, we should\u2019ve had a penalty. Possibly the lad should get sent off with the reckless tackle on the halfway line, but we\u2019re used to seeing that at the minute, aren\u2019t we? I\u2019m sure Mike Jones will get another apology on Monday morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we\u2019ve got to control what we can control.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richardson on Jack Marriott\u2019s injury<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s disappointing. He obviously got a knock last week and felt it over the weekend. We thought we could manage it, get through the week and he\u2019d be better, but at the start of the week it apparently wasn\u2019t great.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe went for a scan in the middle part of the week and then, towards the latter part, we found out it\u2019s his ankle ligaments and things aren\u2019t great from the challenge against Wycombe.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo Jack will be out for a number of weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut somebody else\u2019s disappointment is somebody else\u2019s opportunity. Jacob Brown, Reidy, Stokesy – that\u2019s why we tried really hard in the summer to evolve this squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why transfer windows are so important, so when people are called upon they can take their opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richardson on Udoka Godwin-Malife<\/p>\n
\u201cExcellent. Exactly what I thought when I wanted to recruit him. We spoke to a lot of people, especially his last manager and lads who have worked with him and played with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst and foremost, he\u2019s a fantastic person. Really good in the dressing room, a really good teammate and he wants to learn tactically.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you\u2019ve seen really strong improvements in him already in this infancy of the season, and he\u2019ll get better and better.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m made up for him because I\u2019ve been giving him a little bit of stick about contributing more goals. He should have scored a couple, certainly from set plays.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s in the right area today and technically I thought it was excellent. For 75 or 80 minutes, I thought he was excellent, and then he started to make a few indifferent decisions.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that\u2019s something we\u2019ll work on and something we\u2019ll get better at. This group of players are trying, they want to be successful, they\u2019re very, very good to work with and I think there\u2019s a lot left in this group.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Royals picked up a point against automatic-promotion-chasing Bradford City in a 1-1 draw at the SCL Stadium…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[968,128,130,129,969],"class_list":["post-299546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-manager-quotes","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-reading-fc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}