Reading conceded late on to suffer a gut-wrenching 1-0 defeat to play-off chasers Sunderland.

Here are the player ratings.

Joe Lumley, 6: A good game from the Middlesbrough loanee, keeping the side in the game with a series of saves. Particularly caught the eye with a tremendous triple save in the second half. Could do little about the goal.

Junior Hoilett, 6: A solid performance from the wing-back, looking dangerous when attacking and defending well enough to keep his side at 0-0.

 

Andy Yiadom, 6: Looked good in his unnatural centre-back position, although was booked early on and had to walk 'the tightrope.' Was shifted to wing-back eventually and looked less effective, although the game had swung by this point.

Naby Sarr, 6: The man-mountain made a decent return from injury, commanding the back line. 

Amadou Mbengue, 7: A really strong showing from the youngster, sweeping up well with his pace and power. A real asset in what it a relatively slow backline.

Baba, 4: Was an okay performance for the most part, looking to get forward in the first half, but poor end product. Costly error lost the Royals the game.

Tom McIntyre, 6: Deployed as a deep midfielder, he certainly got stuck in and put himself about. Made some nice passes.

Jeff Hendrick, 6: Quiet game for Hendrick, although had some nice interplay wiht the forwards in the first half. Along with most of the forward players, was virtually non-existent in the second half.

Tom Ince, 6: Looked to make things happen but not his best appearance in a Reading shirt. Has been struggling with flu so fair play to clocking up the kilometres on the pitch, as always.

Shane Long, 6: A positive first half, running the hard yards and having a few half-chances near the edge of the Sunderland box. Continued to run into the second but saw much less of the ball.

Andy Carroll, 5: Not a great return to the North-East for Carroll, who struggled to impact the game. Plenty of long balls aimed to the Geordie but very little was played off to willing runners. Was marshalled well by the Black Cats' defence.

 

Substitutes

Scott Dann, 5: Possibly could have done slightly better for the goal, but the game was in its closing stages by the time the experienced centre-back came onto the pitch.

Yakou Meite, 5: Ran hard but had little chance to impact the game.

Tyrese Fornah, n/a

Femi Azeez, n/a