Reading boss Paul Ince bemoaned the referee and his lack of 'cajhoonas' in the side's 5-0 hammering at the hands of Middlesbrough.

Shane Long was denied a stonewall first half penalty, which the former Middlesbrough captain feels changed the game.

Read what Ince had to say below.

Ince on the referee

It was a tough afternoon. It wouldn’t have been as tough if the referee had the cajhoonas to make the right decision. I’m never one to blame referees, but in the first half he’s made two major decisions that have changed the whole course of the game. First and foremost they’re a good side, but I felt after the first 15 minutes we had quietened the crowd down a bit and found our feet and then for some reason the referee gives a penalty against one of our players when he’s two yards away with his arms by his side. These decisions you have to get right. We’ve seen in the Premier League hands by his side and not in a silly position, he couldn’t wait to blow the whistle and that winds me up. You take it on the chin, we didn’t let it affect us. The one on Shane Long, not only is it a penalty but it’s a red card. Shane’s rolled his ankle, got in front of the lad, gone to shoot with his left foot and Tommy Smith’s fallen into the back of his ankle. It’s a stonewall penalty. They’re down to 10 men, we score the penalty and the whole concept of the game changes. Sometimes you look at a result and think it’s a pasting, it wasn’t, it was the referees two diabolical decisions that put us in a shit position where we have to chase the game in the second half. That suited Middlesbrough because they’re a very good side.

We’ve got 12 games to go and we’re at the business part of the season, the referee have got to get those big decisions right. I can deal with the is it a foul or is it not  a foul or whether it’s our throw, I can deal with that, but I can’t accept referees making horrendous decisions, because it was a horrendous decision on Shane Long. It’s just as bad as the one we had at Burnley when Thomas was fouled in the 92nd minute, these decisions have to be correct. Even the one Tommy Mac gave away right at the end, it was no worse to what Shane’s is and he couldn’t wait to give them a penalty. That’s how I feel about the game. I’m not one for sugar-coating anything.

We made a mistake with the last kick of the game in the first half, an individual mistake, and they go in at 2-0. You think we’re 2-0 down, should have had a blatant penalty and been a man down, we make a mistake and give them the game. What disappoints me more is how we capitulated in the second half, that’s very unlike us. Sometimes that is where you have to fight. It was important in the second half that we got the goal so to concede two goals in three or four minutes was really poor from us. You just have to look at the first half and that’s all I can say. You look at the score and say it was a hiding, the first 45 minutes would have been so different if the referee does what he is supposed to do and do his job when it matters with points on the line. That’s what you need and he didn’t do that today, in my opinion.

Ince on upcoming fixtures

Sometimes when you lose you learn a lot. I don’t think today was one of those because I don’t think it’s down to us in the first half. You look at Sheffield United, another top outfit, and Millwall and Blackburn- three teams in the top six. It’s going to be tough for us. We don’t profess to be at their level. We don’t confess to have the players or money that they’ve got but we know that we are strong at home. We have to pick up points at home. People keep saying to me that we can’t win away, but we’ve been to one of the toughest places in the Championship in Millwall and won away, we should have won at Burnley, we were two up against Swansea. Once we concede the first goal we just go ‘here we go, it’s away again.’ We didn’t do that today, we got in a situation where we could have got a penalty and the referee has absolutely killed us. We go on Tuesday. We’ve got a lot of tough games coming up so let’s see how many points we can get.

Ince on introduction of Tom Holmes and Lucas Joao

As soon as the game was getting away from us there was no way we could win the game so we got Thomas [Ince] off to give him a rest. Tom Holmes has been out for four weeks, Lucas Joao four or five weeks, to get them 20 minutes was great. It’s all hands to the pump now. We’ve got a tough run of games so it’s trying to get the right personnel for Tuesday. We haven’t got a lot of strength in depth so not a lot is going to change. Middlesbrough are a really good football team who play some great stuff under a very good young English manager. We’ve got to brush ourselves down. if there’s ever a game you want at home it’s Sheffield United, that should motivate us. We will go down the motorway feeling that the game could have been completely different if it wasn’t for the referee doing his job.