Heroic Mills inspires injury-hit Royals to first victory

Sportsdesk • Published 28 Aug 2010 19:30 0 Comments

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MATT Mills played through the pain barrier to grab a crucial late winner at Leicester City.

Royals' stand-in skipper capped a man-of-the-match display when he crashed home a superb 86th minute header at Walkers Stadium after Lloyd Dyer had cancelled out Gylfi Sigurdsson's opener.

And while Royals' makeshift back four had to withstand a late Foxes onslaught, they were worthy of the points and their first victory of the Championship season.

Brian McDermott's relieved side now head into a fortnight's international break with their confidence in tact. It will also give their string of injured players time to recover before their next game in two weeks' time.

McDermott paid tribute to his players, saying: “I feel like I've been in a fight. We were clearing balls off the line at the end but we kept going.

“We've lost four or five full-backs. Jobi McAnuff ended up at right-back today and was excellent, Shaun Cummings was fantastic in his first game under me and Adam Federici put in a fantastic goalkeeping display.

“We were up against it after losing to Northampton on Tuesday, there was a bit of anxiety. But I thought we were terrific, there was a really good spirit about us.

“Leicester will feel a bit upset with the chances they had at the end but I feel we got our just rewards and I'm delighted with the three points.”

Royals have been hit by injuries in the early season and it was a bonus for McDermott when he had to make just the two changes to the side which drew with Nottingham Forest a week ago.

Both full-backs, Andy Griffin and Marcus Williams, failed fitness tests so Bynjar Gunnarsson slotted in on the right, with Cummings on the left.

It was a Cummings' first appearance since a 1-1 draw with Scunthorpe in December which proved to be Brendan Rodgers' first game in charge

It was Rodgers who signed him from Chelsea but he failed to make an impact and was expected to leave in the summer.

However, Reading's crippling injury list has given the youngster another opportunity to prove himself at this level - and he grabbed it with both hands.

He settled in quickly with an important block to deny Lloyd Dyer just two minutes in, but Royals replied when Mills headed narrowly wide from Brian Howard's free-kick.

And the visitors were on top when they broke the deadlock with a peach of a goal in the 22nd minute.

Gunnarsson's punt was flicked on by Sigurdsson and Long did well to nick the ball off a Leicester defender after being fouled.

The Irishman then fed Jimmy Kebe who laid the ball off for Sigurdsson to race on to before clipping it beautifully over Foxes' debutant keeper Conrad Logan and into the far corner for his second of the season.

Then when Leicester were sniffing out an equaliser 11 minute later, Cummings did enough to put Dyer off as he was about to pull the trigger.

Royals, though, were knocking it about nicely and they almost snatched a second just before the break when Long headed straight at Logan from another excellent Howard delivery.

Royals were the better side, though their injury nightmare struck again when Gunnarsson limped off and was replaced by Michail Antonio who had been a major doubt himself, with McAnuff dropping to full-back..

The visitors fired another warning five minutes after the break when Long's effort was saved at the near post.

But the lead was gone less than two minutes later after a cracking Dyer equaliser.

He cut in from the right, beat Karacan and Pearce then drilled a low shot into the bottom corner from just outside the box.

Undeterred, Sigurdsson flashed a header wide, then McDedermott was forced into another change, with Simon Church replacing Karacan, who picked up a shiner in the first half.

They pressed on, Antonio firing over before superb feet from Sigurdsson set up Kebe who could only shoot at Logan wen he needed a smarter finish.

Dyer replied at the other end with a shot that deflected just wide and, as the game got even more stretched, Howard curled one over as he went for the far corner and Fryatt's effort was easy for Adam Federici.

Then seven minutes from time Federici kept the scores level a sensational fingertip save to push Dyer's angled drive around the post, with the entire Walkers Stadium expecting to see the net bulge.

It proved to be the turning point as moments later Royals scored their late winner.

Howard whipped over an in-swinging corner and a limping Mills, who aggravated an ankle injury, rose above the Foxes' defence and planted a thumping header past Logan and an inch under the bar.

Royals skipper was not about to let Foxes back in this time, the centre-back coming to his side's rescue with an incredible header off the line when Howard looked certain to score. Then Long repeated the trick with another goal-saving block before Andy King's effort was scrubbed out for a foul on Mills to increase Foxes' frustration.

Mills scored a brace on Tuesday night including a similar header during Reading's shock Carling Cup exit to Northampton Town.

This time, though, it proved to be the much-needed winner going into a fortnight's international break.

Reading (4-5-1): Federici - Gunnarsson (Antonio 45), Mills ©, Pearce, Cummings - Kebe, Karacan (Church 63), Howard, Sigurdsson, McAnuff - Long. Subs not used: Hamer, Davies, Taylor, Robson-Kanu, Hunt.

Leicester (4-4-2): Logan - Berner, Teixeira, Hobbs, Lamey, - Oakley © (King 64), Wellens, N'Guessan (Moussa 82), Dyer - Gallagher (Fryatt 56), Howard. Subs not used: Ikeme, Neilson, Morrison, Kennedy.

Referee: C.Webster.

Attendance: 19,611.

This article appeared in Reading Chronicle 31 Aug 10

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