Reading race past Man City

14 April 2012
Reading 1 Manchester City 0

Micah Richards was promised 'an education' from Stuart Pearce following the defender's amazing rant at his boss after being taken off in Manchester City's defeat to Reading.

The full back was substituted, along with Paul Dickov, as City went down to Ivar Ingimarsson's first-half goal. As Richards sat in the dug-out, the England Under 21 star hurled his shirt to the ground and appeared to be close to tears of anger as teammates consoled him.

Pearce conceded the defender must learn to control his anger now the Premiership spotlight is fixed on him.

He said: "I was disappointed with it, but is my job as a manager to educate him how to behave and how to conduct himself. We've got some great role models in the squad like Paul Dickov and Claudio Reyna. Both of them were taken off tonight and just gave words of encouragement to their team-mates.

"It is not a big problem. I've had a chat with Micah already and it is my job to educate him as a player and a person. He has to understand the eyes of the world are on him. I'm sure he has learned a big lesson."

Prior to Richards' tantrum, Reading defender Ingimarsson had celebrated his first score in the Premiership, almost knocking himself out in the process after clashing heads with City defender Sylvain Distin as he steered the ball in at the far post.

Reading boss Steve Coppell praised his defender, saying: "He got a bang on his head which brought on a migraine, so for him to come out for the second half was terrific. You want a player to be brave but he also has to be honest. He is a sensible young man."

Coppell added that the whack was so hard Ingimarsson initially did not know he had scored. "He asked where it went!" said the manager. Coppell kept faith with Leroy Lita in attack, largely due to Dave Kitson's continued absence with a knee injury.

He also welcomed back Ibrahima Sonko and Graeme Murty to his defence, the Reading captain having recovered from a training injury when an elastic rope broke, badly gashing his knee.

City boss Pearce made one change from the side which beat Arsenal 1-0, with Reyna drafted in on the left to replace Darius Vassell, who was ruled out with a knee problem.

But with only Joey Barton's penalty against the Gunners in City's goal tally so far, and without a win on their travels in 13 attempts, Pearce was clearly hoping for more from summer signings Dickov and Bernado Corradi.

Yet, it was Reading who started better as, 12 seconds into the game, Kevin Doyle broke down the left before feeding Lita in the box, only for the striker to get muscled off the ball by Richard Dunne.

The best chance of a scrappy opening quarter-of-an-hour fell to Dickov, but the striker scuffed his effort and Marcus Hahnemann was able to gather. Moments later, Murty saw off Corradi on the edge of the six-yard box and as Lita broke down the right, Distin tugged the striker back.

Bobby Convey floated the resulting free kick to the back post for Ingimarsson to steal in front of Distin and power his header past Nicky Weaver.

Three minutes before the break, Seol Ki-Hyeon spurned a great chance to make Reading's growing dominance count, heading over the bar from another Convey cross.

City improved in the second half and Georgios Samaras, on for Dickov, brought a smart save from Hahnemann with his first touch. Then the Greek took aim again, his drive clipping a defender's heel and going just wide.

City's hopes of salvaging a draw took a blow late on when Ousmane Dabo was sent off by Howard Webb for a supposed elbow on Steve Sid-well, although the midfielder only looked to have accidentally caught his opponent with an arm.

Assessing Webb's decision, Pearce added: "I wasn't sure at the time. If the referee deems it a sending-off we have to go along with that, but the player thought it was harsh."

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