Source: Northern_Echo
Cooper full of praise for Jones
COLIN Cooper has praised Brad Jones for silencing his critics as he made a surprise return to Middlesbrough's starting line-up in Saturday's 1-1 draw with Reading.[LNB] Jones ended a 15-match exile as he replaced Danny Coyne, and produced two excellent saves to deny Shane Long and Gylfi Sigurdsson as Boro extended their unbeaten home run to eight matches.[LNB] The Australian had been a target for the Riverside boo boys earlier in the season, and there were ironic cheers in the early stages of Saturday's game as he successfully claimed a routine cross.[LNB] The cheering that accompanied his stoppage-time save from Sigurdsson was rather more heartfelt, however, and Cooper feels the 28-year-old more than justified his recall.[LNB] It's not easy when you're getting a bit of stick from the fans at home, but they've got absolutely no reason to give Brad stick after that performance,[LNB] said the first-team coach, who attended the postmatch press conference in place of the absent Gordon Strachan.[LNB] I thought he commanded his area really well and made a couple of vital saves, one in each half. I think the gaffer just wanted to freshen things up a bit. Danny has come in and done very well this season, but we know what Brad can do and I thought he came in and did it superbly.[LNB] Jones' display was one of the highlights of an otherwise drab encounter that did little to improve Middlesbrough's play-off hopes.[LNB] The Teessiders are proving increasingly difficult to beat, but a run of three successive draws suggests they lack the killer instinct required to kill teams off.[LNB] Chances continue to remain at a premium, and while Chris Killen's second goal of the season briefly raised hopes of a Boro victory, Reading goalkeeper Adam Federici had little to do for the majority of the game.[LNB] We lacked a spark and that's disappointing, said Cooper. We're at a stage of the season now where you need to win your home games to push in the right direction.[LNB] We huffed and puffed but we just weren't good enough to win the game and a draw wasn't an unfair result.[LNB] It was a bit of a flat game at the end of a hard week.[LNB] Reading were hard to break down but we didn't help ourselves by passing it well enough. Chris Killen's goal gave us a boost, but we didn't push on to get the second.[LNB] We're three unbeaten but we haven't won any of them, so if we're to have any chance at this business end of the season to get into the play-off picture then we need to start winning.[LNB]
