Brian: It was always going to be tough

Reading manager Brian McDermott admits his side's trip to Stoke was always going to be tough, but praised his teams character in their defeat.

It was the Royals' first loss in seven games, as the Potters defeated McDermott's men 2-1 at the Britannia Stadium. After a goalless first period, Robert Huth opened the scoring half way through the second half, before Cameron Jerome doubled the lead. Adrian Mariappa got one back for Reading, but it was too late for the Royals.

Speaking to the Official Reading FC website, Brian said: 'It was a tough game, you know coming here it always will be, they've only lost once here this season to Chelsea. We stayed in the game, created chances late on. They had a lot of long balls into our box which you expect, we did OK apart from the set play, then a great bit of skill from them for 2-0.'

'I was proud of the character and resilience once again. At half time we changed to 4-4-2, we had a lot of long balls coming down our throat so we tried to get a foothold. Stoke have won the game, Tony will be pleased so good luck to them. I'm happy with everything but the result, we will keep going, we move on and look forward to our next cup game.'

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