Clement accuses players of ‘pure naivety’ over Norwich’s second goal



Posted Thursday, September 20, 2018 by PA

Clement accuses players of ‘pure naivety’ over Norwich’s second goal

Reading manager Paul Clement accused his players of “pure naivety” when they conceded the second goal in their 2-1 Sky Championship defeat against Norwich at he Madejski Stadium.

It was Reading’s fourth successive league defeat at home this season.

Norwich striker Teemu Pukki gave the visitors a deserved lead in the 14th minute with a curling, low drive.

Although Reading equalised in the 72nd minute with a scrappy effort from Jon Dadi Bodvarsson, Norwich snatched what proved to be the winner a minute later through substitute Mario Vrancic.

“We came out with the right spirit in the second half and deservedly got back into the game,” Clement said.

“But that’s just pure naivety in the timing of Norwich’s second goal. We’d got back in it, we’d got the momentum and then that goes in.

“When they’ve got the ball, you’ve just got to keep it tight and don’t make any mistakes.

“It wasn’t just one player, there were two or three mistakes leading up to Norwich’s second goal.

“You can’t allow the away team to get back into it after you’ve just scored. You’ve done all that good work and it’s just shooting yourselves in the foot.

“We’re very disappointed not to have backed up our good performance on Saturday (a 3-2 win at Preston) with a good performance here.

“I thought that we were poor in the first half. We were second best in a lot of areas. Not compact enough, not tight enough and not competitive enough.

“Norwich are a decent side but we made them look even better than they are in the first half.”

Norwich won away from home in the league for the first time in 12 attempts.

“To be honest, I didn’t know this record,” said Daniel Farke, the Norwich head coach.

“Last season, in general, we were pretty good in our away games.

“But it’s also good to have your first away league win of the season. It’s good for the mood and the self-confidence.

“Teemu [Pukki] was again there today with quality finishing. In fact, our first 25 minutes were outstanding.

”It was good to add another win to our record, especially after the previous brilliant home win against Middlesbrough, who had been on fire.

“At the moment, we have a difficult situation because so many important players are out because of injuries.

“Then to go to Reading, whose mood had been lifted after their first win of the season at Preston, and we put in another good performance.

“We took our chances and we deserved to win in the end. It feels good to have six points out of these last two games.”

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