Published: Thursday, 11th March, 2010 4:00pm

Long upbeat after savage penalty miss

by Anthony Smith

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Man of the moment: Shane Long has seven goals in six games - but he failed to beat Robbie Savage from the penalty spot.

SHANE Long has handed penalty duties back to Gylfi Sigurdsson following his horror miss against Derby County when Robbie Savage was in goal.

Long looked odds on to beat Savage from the spot after the midfielder had been called into emergency action.

Rams lost regular keeper Stephen Bywater to injury early on then saw substitute Saul Deeney red carded on his debut for tripping Jay Tabb three minutes before the interval.

But Savage did not have to move an inch as Long blasted the penalty miles over the bar.

"I was disappointed I could have been on nine for the season with no Derby keeper in goal," admitted in-form Long.

"I don't really know what happened. I stick them away every day in training and it's the first penalty I've ever missed which is disappointing.

"I was getting a bit of stick at half-time but these things happen and I'm just delighted it didn't cost us in the end and scored more goals."

And the 23-year-old Republic of Ireland striker denied he was put off by Savage's mind games.

"Not at all," he stressed. "I tried doing what I always do and stick it in the corner with pace. I just managed to get under it and lift it high over the bar.

"These things happen and I won't let it get me down. But I think Gylfi will be on then next one."

However, Long's miss could not take the shine off Reading's performance in their 4-1 victory which made it six wins in seven league games for Brian McDermott's resurgent side.

Long continues his sizzling for with a seventh goal in six appearances and, though Gilles Sunu levelled for Derby, Jimmy Kebe made it 2-1 with his sixth in seven games.

Then after Rams had been reduced to 10-men, Ryan Bertrand made it 3-1 with his first goal in professional football before substitute Simon Church notched a fourth late on.

And Long argued: "It was nice to get the early goal of the game then build on top of that.

"It has been a big turnaround since Brian came in, it has given us confidence.

"He brought most of us players to the club and he knows what everyone's about. He wants us to play to their strong points and that's what we've been doing.

"Confidence has a lot to do with it. Even though we lost to Aston Villa in the cup on Sunday, we knew we had played well so we went into the Derby game on a high.

"If we perform like that we won't have many troubles for the rest of the season."

Royals have two more home games ahead within the next week starting with the visit of Bristol City this Saturday (3pm) followed by QPR on Tuesday night (8pm).

Long stressed: "We're looking good on the pitch and we're playing good football with a bit of ease.

"It's enjoyable but we need to keep doing what we've been doing and don't take out foot off the pedal.

"We need to make sure we get as many points as we can from the next couple of games.

"We need to make every game count from here on. Bristol will be hard on Saturday. But if we keep performing like we have been over the last few games we should get the three points."

Meanwhile, Savage quipped:

"I've never tried being a keeper in training. I'm a natural sportsman. Robbie Southall that's me. Maybe I might get in the Wales squad as a goalkeeper."