McDermott relieved by overdue win

Shane Long grabbed his first league goal since April as Reading carried their FA Cup form into the Championship with a vital win at the Madejski Stadium.Former chief scout McDermott, who was confirmed in the job full-time on Wednesday, said: "I just wanted to get it done. It is important to the players, to the supporters and to the staff."We needed to bring stability to the situation."Today is just what we needed. We showed courage and spirit, although 1-0 is always a bit hairy towards the end of the game."In the past things have happened when were leading 1-0, but the important thing about this result is that we got all three points."McDermott reserved special praise for matchwinner Long."Shane was excellent, really athletic and he won his headers," he said."There are signs of a growing partnership between him and Simon Church, whose movement was really good, but we have five or six strikers fighting for a place in the team."McDermott also had praise for full-back Andy Griffin, the man he brought in on loan from Stoke."He is such a good pro, and he is a great guy to have around the club. I have been really pleased with him," he said.Barnsley boss Mark Robins has taken his side from the foot of the Championship to mid-table since taking over from Simon Davey but will be concerned that this was his side's fourth defeat in five matches."It was poor from start to finish," he said."We have not defended well enough and Reading's goal was something you see in the playground."The ball's got through Luke Steele's fingers, we then had another chance to close it down but didn't and it was a catalogue of errors."This was a really, really poor performance. Everything was poor about our play. This has got to be a one-off."Credit to Reading, they worked hard, but we didn't do any of the things we spoke of before the game."What's changed since our good run is that we were working hard, but we have not for 90 minutes today and that's disappointing."Reading were on top from start to finish with Jobi McAnuff close to adding a second with a shot that hit the upright.Adam Hammill saw his first-half effort for Barnsley get past Reading keeper Adam Federici, but full-back Ryan Bertrand was in the right place to clear the ball away from the line."Now we have to get out of the bottom three," added McDermott, "but we face another tough game next week with a visit to Doncaster."

Source: Team_Talk