READING were left heartbroken after losing 5-4 to East Grinstead in the Super Sixes semi-final at the SSE Arena, Wembley, on Sunday, writes Dave Wright.

In front of a crowd of nearly 5,000, the Blues led 4-3 with 84 seconds remaining, only to concede two late goals, with a disputed winner coming 13 seconds from time.

Skipper Tom Carson emerged from a despondent dressing room to say: “You see football managers at their press conference after a match say ‘it’s better if I don’t say anything’, and it is much the same mindset for me, as I don’t want to get into trouble.

“But I will say it was very frustrating.”

Teammate Dan Shingles was a little more forthcoming, commenting: “There was a questionable challenge on Tom when we were attacking, which we thought would have been given in our favour, but it wasn’t and that led to them breaking away and scoring. We are all gutted.”

Reading were the better team in the semi-final as they looked to end East Grinstead’s eight-year domination of England indoor hockey.

Like they had when beating the defending champions 10-8 in the league three weeks earlier, Blues went into the game without a goalkeeper, preferring to play with Richard Mantell as a kicking-back.

It didn’t look like it was paying off when they went 2-0 down inside the opening 10 minutes, but Shingles struck twice to pull the scores level by the 14th minute.

Andy Watts saw his effort cleared off the line before James Carson put Blues ahead seven minutes into the second half, only for David Condon to make it 3-3 two minutes later.

With 10 minutes remaining, Reading brought on keeper Tommy Alexander and two minutes later they regained the lead through Tom Carson.

East Grinstead withdrew their goalie, Pat Smith, in a late bid to save the game and the move paid dividends.

During the game, Blues were also not helped by being left short on two occasions with Ajai Dhadwal being shown a green card in the 13th minute and Harry Jawanda getting a yellow midway through the second half.

Adam Seccull equalised in the 39th minute, but Reading returned to the attack, only to see the move stopped by what they considered an illegal tackle and their moment’s hesitation led to Ben Allberry snatching the last-minute winner.

Tom Carson said later: “Obviously, we are all gutted.

“I think we outplayed EG for most of the game, if not the whole game. We just got undone towards the end.

“I must give full credit to my side, they gave everything.

“We were the better team against a side that has won the indoor title eight times in a row.

“There are not many times teams have outplayed them, so fair play to everyone in our side, they played brilliantly throughout.”

East Grinstead went on to lose the final 12-5 to Surbiton, whose player-coach is Mark Pearn, the former EG and Reading player.

During the afternoon, there was a special presentation by England Hockey to Shingles to mark his recent retirement from the international scene.

He is now head of hockey at St George’s School in Weybridge.

Reading, lying seventh in the table, resume their outdoor fixtures with a home game against the eighth team, Brooklands MU, on Saturday (1.30pm).

Then on Sunday they are away to Beeston in the quarter-finals of the England Cup.

Reading Women visit Leicester on Saturday looking for their first Investec League win of the season.

They have signed 16-year-old Jess Minshull-Beech from Marlow, but lost Orla Cooke to Isca University.