Brian: The performance was key

Reading manager Brian McDermott expressed his delight in the Royals picking up their fifth consecutive win, having reserved praise for his players.

A good poachers finish from Noel Hunt on 17 minutes and a superb 25-yard free kick from Ian Harte on 80 minutes was enough to get the three points against a good Middlesbrough side, that had only lost twice at home all season. When speaking to the media, McDermott emphasises the importance of the victory.

He told the official RFC site: 'We have to be delighted with how bright and clever the players are and how they carry out a gameplan. We tweak every game and today was very, very good. The performance was key. If we do what we are capable of then the results will come.'

'They're a good side who make it difficult, but we are disciplined. There's no fear when the other team have the ball, we see it as an opportunity. We had opportunities to kill it off, it could have been 3-0 or 4-0, Jason had a chance and we felt there was a penalty on Jobi late on. When we go 1-0 up we're a good outfit at keeping clean sheets, the players have shown that many times.'

The victory takes the Royals back up to third in the table, just five points off league leaders Southampton with a game in hand in our favour. Reading will now travel to Millwall next week, who picked up a fantastic 3-1 win against Burnley yesterday.