Reading FC need to improve - McAnuff
Sportsdesk • Published 3 Nov 2011 17:30
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READING FC captain Jobi McAnuff is urging his teammates to pick themselves up after midweek disappointment and put in the extra yard needed to win games ahead of Sunday's home clash with Birmingham City.
Reading failed to capitalise despite dominating for large spells on Tuesday against a resurgent Nottingham Forest at the City Ground - but McAnuff believes he knows what was missing and is eager to put it right.
The 29-year-old said: "I don't think we did enough to the win the Nottingham Forest game at all. We had a decent little spell first half but we never really went after the game.
"We weren't good enough on the ball to go and cause them problems. There wasn't enough urgency from us. Obviously they've managed to get a goal and we never really looked like getting back into the game.
"No-one is coming off the pitch thinking they did better than they did. It's not a mystery as to why we didn't get anything out of the game, we weren't good enough on the ball and as an attacking force and that's everybody."
Royals drew the previous three games prior to Forest but could have won them all - not least at McAnuff's former stomping ground of Selhurst Park last weekend.
The referee ruled out a seemingly legitimate injury-time winner from Kaspars Gorkss to hand Crystal Palace a share of the spoils.
But despite the recent disappointments, McAnuff said team spirit remains strong at Hogwood Park.
He added: "It's not anyone in particular; win, lose or draw there's not one person that's responsible.
"What we've always been about is a team ethic - everyone in the team attacking and everyone in the team defending and making sure we don't concede sloppy goals. We're a tight unit and we'll go again come Sunday."
Royals will face a tough test when they run out at the Madejski Stadium on Sunday for the 3pm kick-off with Chris Hughton's Premier League drop-outs.
The Blues sit in ninth place, just three points above Reading, who are hoping their opponents will be suffering from a Europa League hangover after facing Club Brugge at St Andrew's tonight (Thursday).
McAnuff said: "It's a big game, one thing about this league is that you can't be down for too long. We were disappointed on the journey home on Tuesday but one of the tasks in this league is to get over bad results quickly.
"There's no time for moping around, the boys will be disappointed for the next day or two but when we're back in training it's time to look ahead."
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