“I think when you look at the first-half, we are really pleased with the way we tried to play,” he told Palace TV after full time. “Obviously the sending off makes it a bit difficult for us, but we gave a really good answer about our defensive organisation.
“The players worked well. We didn’t give them many options, but when you are one man down it is important that you show character, but you stick to the principles that you want to play. With the difficulties we had today I was pleased with the team performance.
“The Reading manager was really good – he wanted us to just bring another player on, but obviously the referee didn’t accept it. But it gave me an opportunity to see the defensive work, how we could shuffle across and make it difficult to the opponent."
