Reading ‘just weren’t good enough’ says boss Noel Hunt after Blackpool defeat

New Reading manager Noel Hunt admitted his side “just weren’t good enough” as they fell to a dismal 3-0 League One defeat against Blackpool in his first home match in charge.

Play-off chasers Reading rarely showed any control throughout and Blackpool deservedly took a 2-0 half-time lead through goals from Albie Morgan and Rob Apter.

Ash Fletcher added a third for the visitors in the second half as they ran out worthy winners.

Hunt is still without a win in three matches since succeeding Ruben Selles at the helm.

“We just weren’t good enough on the day,” he said.

“We were a little bit slow on the ball and, at times, took too many touches. But we’re a young group and you have to still believe in them. They almost went back in their shells a little bit. I wanted them to be more up tempo.

“We needed some big moments, we spoke about it at half-time, but we should have had a penalty. I don’t know how such big decisions don’t get seen and that cost us.

“That would have been our chance to get one back and gain the ascendancy, but these young lads are learning all the time. That’s the way it is.

”It’s good that we can come in and analyse this on Monday. We can see the bits when we got it right, when we did it really well. In the second half, we just stopped doing the things we were good at.

”When things aren’t going for you, it’s all about the mentality of keeping going and being strong. With this group, I know they’ll do that.”

Blackpool claimed their third successive league victory – all away from home.

“That was arguably as comfortable and as well as we have performed for a long time,” Blackpool head coach Steve Bruce said.

“That’s our third on the trot away and we thoroughly deserved it. We played very well from front to back.

“It’s always difficult to pick out individuals but, as a team, we looked very decent again today.

“We’ve got to stay with that. Our problem is inconsistency. We throw one in [a poor display] now and again and we’ve got to guard against that.

“We’ve changed over the last two or three months but we’re edging towards getting some of our good players back fit and ready. And defensively, we look a lot more solid than we did a month ago, which is very pleasing.

“Let’s just hope we can stay in the moment. We’ve got a big Christmas coming up and we’re nudging towards where we want to be. Let’s see if we can stay with it.”