Royals boss reflects on a late loss at Leyton Orient
We had wrestled back into the game after being a goal down. We tried to win it. But then we fell to a late loss at the hands of Leyton Orient.
Tyler Bindon’s first ever professional goal had cancelled out Jordan Brown’s strike… but O’s sub George Moncur converted a 90th-minute corner to deny the Royals anything from our visit to Brisbane Road.
Royals manager Rubén Sellés said: “We competed until the very end, but there is a moment in final minutes – like in the Exeter game – where we lose the game in a situation where we can easily solve. And it hurts.
“We were in the game and we came here to compete. We came back after the first goal, but we need to improve in those situations that can happen.
“Our pressure wasn’t not arriving well enough, so we needed to modify – then they had lots of switches of play, and because of that they had more crosses and we needed to make some modifications. Then we started to defend better; sometimes you need to adjust in the game.
“We started with a 4-2-3-1 and we put Dom in the number 10 position – to put us more in the game. The result was that we didn’t get the pressure that we wanted and the switch of play was easy; when we went back to a different system, we were able to get more pressure on the ball and stop those switches of play.
“A lot of things have happened this season – if I say that with another context then we would be better, but that would be making excuses. We are where we are and we tried to get the points. We came here trying to win the game today. But it has not been good enough, we all know.”
The players didn’t shy away at the final whistle. It was a shared frustration between everyone in Reading colours this afternoon – but the Royals were right there to pay their respects to the travelling support for all their efforts. And the Royals boss stressed the importance of that gesture, and hearing from the fans up close.
“We need to accept our responsibility,” Rubén continued. “I am the first responsible. These fans have been very supportive to us; they have come away with us and they know what our record is, and they still support.
“The least that we can do is go to them and hear them. We need to hear them.
“My players felt that they cannot lose the game at the end, and that they need to stand in front of our people and to show respect for them and give their apologies. We need to feel as they feel – we are all human and we all need to listen.”