Reading exited the FA Cup to Manchester United after a 3-1 defeat at Old Trafford

Here is what manager Paul Ince had to say.

Ince on the match

It was very enjoyable. You’re playing one of the biggest clubs in the world and in front of 74,000 fans at a magnificent stadium. If you can’t enjoy that you should give up football. It was a great experience for the players. You plan all week thinking is he going to make changes and all of a sudden you look at the team sheet and think ‘Jesus he’s going full throttle here.’ When you come to Old Trafford you want to play against the best that Man United have, and we were fortunate to do that. Reading are not ready to win the FA Cup but as a team, to hold them to 0-0 at half-time, and should have scored before then, gave us a lot of confidence. We have to take pride in that, and positivity and confidence and use it going into the games in Championship, which is more important than what we had tonight.

Ince on Andy Carroll sending off

I was disappointed with the referee. The first one in the corner wasn’t a yellow card, the linesman’s not even flagged. The referee can’t wait to get his cards out. Once you get booked, you’re on a tightrope. He had a poor tackle on Christian Eriksen, which could have been another booking, and the second one against Casemiro he is sliding but lifts his legs away as he knows he can’t go through him. He can’t wait to book him. That’s a bit of a downer because we lose him for the game on Saturday.

Ince on Dean Bouzanis substitution

I found it a difficult decision because when you look at the bigger clubs they have FA Cup keepers. I thought Deano played well against Watford and it was a tough decision whether to keep him or go for Joe [Lumley]. The quality we had tonight was a lot better than we had against Watford, so I felt sorry for not playing him tonight. Everyone this week has been running around more to try and get in the lineup, which is natural, and I felt sorry for Deano. Once the game had gone behind us I had the idea of bringing him on for 15-20 minutes so I’m pleased about that.

Ince on the fans

It's the third time [we had them] and hadn’t scored so it was nice to get a goal. We know the Reading fans have come up on a Saturday night at 8pm and have to get home, so it was important that we didn’t embarrass ourselves and the fans. There was no expectation of us, but at least the fans managed a song about scoring a goal which is nice. We have to take that all on board, the fans and togetherness, and take it into the next 18 games of Championship. Our priority isn’t to win the FA Cup, it’s the stay in this league. If we keep performing like that then we’ll be okay.