Reading FC's Church dedicates goal to Gary Speed
Anthony Smith • Published 2 Dec 2011 09:30
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SIMON Church dedicated his goal against Peterborough United to his Wales manager Gary Speed.
Reading and Wales team-mate Hal Robson-Kanu also followed suit after firing his side's third in the 3-2 comeback win on Tuesday night.
Church and Robson-Kanu both played under Speed who was found dead at his Cheshire home on Sunday morning.
The tragic death of the former Leeds United, Everton, Newcastle United, Bolton Wanderers and Sheffield United player sent shockwaves throughout football.
Royals remembered Speed with a minute's applause before Tuesday night's kick-off, with grounds up and down the land paying similar tributes.
Choking back the tears, Church said: "It was good timing because I wanted to score on the night and it was a great result for us in the end.
"Hal and I said we wanted to put on a performance and get a goal for him (Speed). Luckily we both managed to do that.
"It's been a strange few days for us, for everyone really. It was a shock to everyone and it's a massive loss to everyone in football."
Royals boss Brian McDermott called it 'fitting' that both Church and Robson-Kanu should find the net on the night when Berkshire honoured Speed.
Church struck an instinctive equaliser to cancel out a Tommy Rowe opener for Posh. Robson-Kanu then made it 3-1 late on with a brilliant
individual goal after Adam Le Fondre had put Royals in front just minutes earlier.
Reading even had the luxury of allowing Emile Sinclair to punish an Adam Federici error by scoring a second for Posh at the very end.
Church's goal was initially credited to Jimmy Kebe, but the Wales striker insisted: "It was definitely my goal, I don't know where that came from.
"It was massive for us to win. We wanted to build on the Ipswich victory at the weekend and the challenge for us now is to make it three wins in a row.
"Again, we have shown that it's down to the squad, people coming off the bench and making an impact every week.
"The gaffer instills in us the fact that if you are not in the team you have to be ready to make an impact. I think it's why we have such a strong squad."
And he added: "We can hold up our hands and say we haven't played very well in these last two games. We've ground out results against Ipswich and Peterborough and our main focus is to win games which we're doing at the moment.
"The strikers are scoring and we've got a great team ethic. No matter which players start, we all support each other. We're a tight-knit group and we're scoring goals which is good."
And Church also praised the resilience and fitness of the Reading squad, having scored four goals in the final 10 minutes of their last two games. "We've got experiences of winning games late," he suggested. "We keep going to the end and we always have that belief that we can win games. We're focused on the next game now which is a big one on Saturday."
Reading face a difficult trip to Blackpool tomorrow (3pm ko), though their record away from home this season is better than it is at Madejski Stadium.
"Blackpool are a good side with Premier League experience from last year and it's a tough place to go," said Church. "But we back ourselves wherever we go and, off the back of these last two results, we will go there with a lot of confidence."
Noel Hunt, Jem Karacan, Mikele Leigertwood and Joseph Mills are all carrying knocks and will be assessed before the game.
This article appeared in Reading Chronicle 01 Dec 11
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