Ruben Selles praises Reading fans’ ‘respectful’ protest in win over Huddersfield

Reading manager Ruben Selles praised the club’s fans for their “respectful” protest during the 2-1 League One victory over Huddersfield.

Home supporters held red cards aloft in the 18th minute, the latest show of dissent against Chinese owner Dai Yongge.

Three minutes later, Huddersfield went in front from Matthew Pearson’s close-range header.

The Royals levelled on the half-hour mark through Harvey Knibbs and went on to win with a low drive from Ben Elliott early in the second half.

Reading fan protests last season included the throwing of tennis balls on to the field and a pitch invasion that caused the game against Port Vale to be abandoned in January.

Rob Couhig’s prospective takeover from Yongge suddenly collapsed last week.

“I think that the main thing for the fans, the team, the players and the staff is that we can all be focused on football,” Selles said.

“I know of everything that has been going on around us but the fans were very respectful today.

“They did it [the card protest] in their way but they were still supportive to us. I think that is the way that we need to continue going.”

Of the victory, Selles said: “We are happy to get the three points after not doing so over the past couple of weeks.

“It was a very competitive game. Even when going 1-0 down, we still had a feeling that we could do it.

“We scored the first goal and scored the second one against a really good opponent. In the end, we managed to keep the score.

“At 1-0 behind, we have been demanding of the team to be a little more robust. After conceding, we then started to play a bit more.

“Harvey [Knibbs] had an irregular start to the season with an injury. Today was his first 90 minutes and he did very well.

“We know how important he is to us.”

Huddersfield have now lost six of their last seven matches in all competitions.

“We found a way to lose,” Town head coach Michael Duff said. “We had dominated the game.

“It was a much better performance than in the last weeks so I suppose that’s a positive. Coming in at half-time, you can’t believe that it’s 1-1.

“And yet we still found a way to lose the game. We had 75 per cent of the game and, at 70 minutes, we were totally dominant.

“So it’s frustrating and disappointing. We’ve played a number of matches now and there’s only one team, Blackpool, who have been better than us.

“We need to adjust. We need to find a way of finding points, of winning games that we are drawing. We have to stop shooting ourselves in the foot.”