Football

Leigertwood: Reading FC players only have themeselves to blame after Arsenal defeat

By Jonny Fordham
November 01, 2012

Mikele Leigertwood confessed that Reading's players have themselves to blame for their shock 7-5 defeat to Arsenal.

Throwing away a 4-1 lead at the break, Royals were ripped apart by Arsene Wenger's side at Madejski Stadium as they were dumped out of

the Capital One Cup on Tuesday night.

In what will be a true test of their character, Royals must now move on and look forward to Sunday's bottom two clash against Leigertwood's old club Queens Park Rangers (live on Sky Sports 1, 1.30pm kick-off).

The 29-year-old said: "It's disappointing to score five and not win.

"That's hard to take, but we have no one to blame but ourselves.

"We all have to take a look at ourselves individually.

"There are positives to take, we're scoring, but we're not seeing games out and we need to take a step back and analyse that to see how we can out it right.

"We've shown time and time again that we can bounce back and there is no reason why we can't do that on Sunday with a positive result."

QPR is almost unrecognisable since Leigertwood's days there under former boss Neil Warnock.

A new owner, Tony Fernandes, has since come in and thrown hundreds of millions of pounds at the club, without seeing the benefits of his

riches.

"It's totally different to when I was there," added Leigertwood.

"They have spent a lot of money and things aren't clicking for them, but we can't worry about that and need to just worry about ourselves.

"Every game is a big one, we will approach it in a positive manner."

Another ex-Rangers man in the Reading ranks is Kaspars Gorkss.

Allowed to leave Loftus Road for Madejski Stadium in August 2011 following their promotion, the Latvia captain will be looking forward

to seeing some familiar faces in west London both on and off the pitch.

And Gorkss hopes that the Reading fans will back their side and show their support to help them register their first Premier League win of the season against his former employers.

He said: "I hope the fans won't turn on us. We didn't perform at our best on Tuesday when we should have won.

"I hope the fans will stay with us, because their support will play a big part in picking us up and helping us put games to bed and winning games. "We are all professionals and need to pick ourselves up as soon as possible as there is a massive game on Sunday."

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We are all entitled to our opinion on here. Not sure that Anton will be hapy to have been entertained and lost. That is ok on occasion but not week after week. It is about getting results and that is the bottom line and it does not matter if it is hoof and rush or tippy tappy football. Bm needs to make changes in system because Jan is far away (too far away now) to buy. Unless he makes significant changes in formation and or gets results out of the next two games then it will probably be too late fpr him. Waiting on the team sheet for sunday.. It will say everything. We lack quality in midfield so play 3 there but keep 2 up front. Fear for us if it is just leig and tabb on sunday.

poru, Bournemouth
01/11/2012 at 23:48

"Reading FC players only have themselves to blame ..." but it will be the manager who could get sacked. To lose a 4 goal lead was a complete shambles. Wishlist - combine the firt half v Arsenal and the second half v Fulham and we might get the result we all want v QPR!

Uncle Buck, Reading
01/11/2012 at 21:37

"

Reading FC - Official

Give us a Like for Brian McDermott's reflections on the Arsenal game now the dust has settled: He said: "After a night like that we're not talking about diving, there was great respect for the referee and it's what football in this country is all about. "I didn't think it at the time but sat here now, it's one of the best games of football ever, we have to take consolation from that and now we look to QPR."

Well said Brian and my sentiments exactly. I will never forget that superb performance by both teams. Yes! Shame we lost but great entertainment for ALL football fans.

Tilidie (The Original One), Woodley
01/11/2012 at 20:10

I think Ferguson, Mancini, De Matteo, Redknapp would struggle with the squad that McDermott has to play with. Everyone remarks on his failings and there are a few notably buying Gunter and anytime he puts Church on the pitch but he had NO money to spend. So much for AZ coming to the club, he has given McDermott nothing to spend and I am pretty sure the Pog wasn't his first choice bearing in mind, he prefers pace. So sacking the manager would be pretty fruitless unless AZ wants to spend more than a couple of quid

Windsor Royal
01/11/2012 at 18:53

well said come on lads.

Bringing on Churhy for, ahem, goodness sake?

Smiffy - come on mate "I would like to see you do better" is the agument of the nursery isnt it? And, Fwi on Tuesday night, frankly, I think most of us could.

It was a freak game but lets face it, as soon as it went 4-1; we knew we were in the mire - and thats not just hindsight. Call it Royalsight.

Buck, Reading
01/11/2012 at 17:41

Minimum 4 minutes added time.. Same old Reading fans blaming everyone else apart from their own teams incapability to see out a game!!

Dazza1871
01/11/2012 at 16:38

Personally I;d have taken Roberts off earlier..why He's 33 not fully fit and our most experienced striker,he's needed for 90+ minutes on Sunday 4-2 up you would think the team could see the last 15 -20 minutes out. The games over now nothing anyone can do about it .It was a strange result but so what we can concentrate on the league now untill the FA cup comes along. Change the manager ...why..what will that achieve now the new one has the same players to operate with till Jan..no if at the end off November and we have no wins on the board then maybe its worth thinking about but lets wait till then 6-9 points between now and then will make the how table look better..

A. XYZ
01/11/2012 at 15:23

come on lads - I assume you are referring to Jason Roberts as the best player. He was taken off right at the end - how do you know he didn't have a niggle or was just exhausted? I assume that losing from 4-2 up with only a few minutes on the clock wasn't planned, but in any case blaming everything on the subsitutions is still odd logic.

Smiffy, Reading
01/11/2012 at 14:45

Smiffy, I note that BM described Tuesday as 'embarrassing'. Quite rightly. To pretend otherwise would be unworthy of a decent man.

Did you factor into your equation that a full strength Arsenal lost at Norwich and only edged QPR thanks almost entirely to a 'big club' offside decision?

I note that Bobby Zamora has described Sunday as a must win for Rangers. It's certainly a don't lose for us, as a minimum.

Fishlips, is it actually possible to blame Nick Clegg for the result? I'm prepared to sign any petition (twice if required) to shift blame in the direction of the Cleggster (and I haven't been a student for nearly 30 years).

Michael Duberry's Defensive Coach
01/11/2012 at 14:42

Some of you guys would walk of a cliff if McD told you to!

He did a fantastic job last year against all the odds.

Most supporters, watch what succesful managers do. You're winning 4 - 2 - you don't take off your best player.

You need someone to hold up the ball and you need cover for your defence.

To bring on The Pog, Church and McAnuff was just plain stupid!

come on lads
01/11/2012 at 13:58

come on lads - I would love to see you do better. It is really easy to judge and criticise, but real life is a bit more complicated than computer games! Tuesday was a freak game and as proved last night with Man Utd and Chelsea, you can't read that much into crazy cup games. Have you factored into your equation that Arsenal actually played very well in the second half and most teams would have struggled to compete? Although not the sole cause, the substitution in injury time was supposed to waste a few more seconds and is something that many managers do. Strangely, they didn't factor in how incompetent the ref was in his timekeeping!

Don't read too much into the game and having a go at the manager is pretty childish and pointless.

Smiffy, Reading
01/11/2012 at 13:41

Reading "won" the first third of the match 4 - 0 and lost the other two thirds 7 - 1. That must be record incompetence!!

come on lads
01/11/2012 at 13:25

RBC - you might like rugby - I prefer football!

It's winter - take of your rose tinted glasses

come on lads
01/11/2012 at 13:23

Same old rubbish about McDermott by one of the usual suspects. I'm amazed some of McD's detractors have worked out how to switch a PC on. Shame they did though......

RBC Traffic Management are Useless, Calcot
01/11/2012 at 13:00

No - it's the managers fault.

Bad, bad substitutions and appallling second half tactics.

Too many favourites.

Will he ditch his favourites and pick the best team for QPR?