Coppell: Grand occasion for Royals

18 March 2009 08:41
Dave Kitson's delightful 81st-minute strike sealed three valuable points for the Royals following a hard-fought Championship encounter at the Keepmoat Stadium on Tuesday night.[LNB]"It was important to get the right result, but the performance was very pleasing," said Coppell.[LNB]"If we had come away from the game with a 0-0 I think I would still have been pleased because of the performance.[LNB]"We were solid at the back and looked threatening going forward without really having that outstanding clear-cut chance but it always looked likely to come.[LNB]"To be fair to Doncaster, in the second half they had a couple of good opportunities and made it challenging for us, but it was still all about the quality finish from Dave Kitson.[LNB]"We were right behind the flight of the ball from the dugout and we could see it curling in. It was sweet viewing, I must admit."[LNB]Reading now lie four points behind second-placed Birmingham, and seven behind leaders Wolves with a game in hand, and Coppell believes the race for automatic promotion will go down to the wire.[LNB]"It's still down to any team who has a significant run and we, like a number of sides, are capable of that," he added.[LNB]"I think I've got some really good players and despite our recent results at home we're still in a very good position.[LNB]"I don't think anybody knows what to expect from the teams at the top of the table and it (automatic promotion) is still there to be taken."[LNB]Doncaster boss Sean O'Driscoll felt his side were unfortunate to come away from the game empty-handed, but lavished praise on Reading for the quality of their performance.[LNB]"We've been beaten by the odd goal by a lot of teams in this division and come off really disappointed, not with the way we've played, but with quality of the teams that have beaten us," he said.[LNB]"But that's not the case this time, I thought Reading were excellent.[LNB]"Our performance was good, we defended really well as a team and were brave on the ball.[LNB]"Every chance we had to play I thought we took it and on another night we would have got something out of the game.[LNB]"But, credit to Reading, I think they're the best side we've played by a million miles.[LNB]"They've got everything, pace, power and a bit of guile that you need and they impressed our boys."[LNB]O'Driscoll admitted there was little his side could do about Reading's winning goal.[LNB]"It was good movement," he added. "They isolated our full-back James Chambers and Kitson pulled off and finished it well.[LNB]"They sold him for £5.5million so you expect something special, but apart from that I thought we dealt with him really well."[LNB][LNB]

Source: Team_Talk