Richardson Feels Reading’s 1-0 Defeat at Wigan is “disappointing”

 

Leam Richardson felt that Reading’s 1-0 defeat at Wigan was a “disappointing” result.

Scott Hogan’s 71st-minute winner saw the Latics condemn their former boss and Reading to just their third league defeat of the season, as the Royals slipped out of the final play-off spot after Sheffield Wednesday hammered AFC Wimbledon 5-0 at Hillsborough.

“A week in football, hey,” joked Richardson to RoyalsTV post match as he admitted that he felt his team had began the match at a “slow speed” against a team which lacked confidence and sat rock bottom of League One, and which led him to anticipate a fast start from his Royals.

“We spoke about coming to a team who lacked confidence and wanted to start fast, but credit to Wigan. We grew into the game and finished the first half really well, with a couple of good chances to go into half-time one or two up.

“The second half, once they get a goal up, which is a poor goal on our part, we had enough moments and goals on the pitch. It wasn’t to be but congratulations to Wigan. We will move on to two big home games this week.

“You felt that had we scored first, we would have got some momentum. Could the lads give any more? You could see the endeavour and how much they were willing to put themselves into the spaces.

“We moved people up to try and get an equaliser and even a winner after, but it wasn’t to be. On the balance of play, we had enough chances- 17 or 18 shots away from home.”

Richardson though is keen to focus on the bigger picture of the season and sees the defeat as an opportunity ahead of their home match against Leyton Orient on Wednesday 21 October at 8pm BST.

“If you have a consistency in performance and stats, you will always get what you deserve across a season. Today is disappointing because we’ve lost a game of football, but in the main we wanted to build off such a strong result last week. Football gives you an opportunity, when you lose a game, around the corner.”

“We are disappointed today and we will have a long trip back down to Reading but we will make sure we dust ourselves down quickly. There are 60 games within a season, so we won’t get high or low, we try and stay consistent with how we are and hold ourselves going into Wednesday.”