Steve Coppell admitted we shot ourselves in the foot against Portsmouth today, but was still proud of the effort our ten men put in.
Ibrahima Sonko's early red card gave us a mountain to climb, and Portsmouth went on to win 2-0.
Sol Campbell's opening goal was offside, but the visitors still won at something of a canter.
Steve said, "We had ten men and I thought they all did magnificently. We had opportunities to score, we kept them quiet.
"You could say Portsmouth were always in control and yes they were, but we still had ten men who worked hard and will sleep well tonight, that's for sure.
"I can only thank them at the end of the game."
He continued, "We were looking forward to the game as a chance to make amends for the first game.
"We wanted to have a go at them, put them under pressure and go for three points.
"But after five minutes we've got ten men against a very accomplished side with a terrific away record. We had the lucky break of not conceding a goal from the penalty, and I thought 'let's keep it tight.'
"But then Marcus made a mistake, which cost us a goal, and at 1-0 there's an awful long way to go.
"As long as we kept it 1-0 we were always going to have an opportunity though. We changed what we were doing and we tried to keep them flat. We knew human nature would come in and we may have some kind of a chance late on.
"But they took advantage of Nicky Shorey, who has been struggling over the last few days with a stomach complaint, and this bug that's going around. He just had nothing left in the tank."
On the decision to award a penalty against Ibrahima Sonko, Coppell did not question the referee.
Steve said, "I thought it was a penalty. The issue was whether Ivar was in a position to get across and assist Sonko. It was bad defending, don't get me wrong.
"It should and could have been anticipated, they had one striker, we have two centre backs, he gets through, it is not good play."
On the subsequent award of a red card, Steve said, "The common sense ruling would be, is it really denying a goal scoring opportunity if you reproduce the goal scoring opportunity with a penalty?
"I think most people would say to have a sending off and give the penalty is too harsh a punishment. And there is always that grey area about whether it is a goal scoring opportunity or not.
"We had a penalty against Birmingham, and the goalkeeper there wasn't even cautioned, The ball was staying in play, and it would have been a goal scoring opportunity. It is such a grey area/
"I do feel that a penalty and a yellow card are sufficient. You are reproducing the goal scoring opportunity by giving the penalty."
"I don't think Sonko actually challenged him, he just clumsily pressed it. Any forward, given half the opportunity, will hit the deck there."
A full in-depth post-match interview with Steve is live on Reading World now, and highlights will be online at midnight on New Year's Day.
