LIAM MOORE admits it was “torture” to watch Reading lose 5-0 to Fulham last week, but says his side must not dwell on the result.
Summer signing Moore has been a key part of Royals success this season which sees them sitting third in the Championship table, but was forced to sit in the stands for the heavy loss at Craven Cottage due to suspension.
And having played every minute at centre-back during the previous run of conceding just one goal in five league games, Moore’s return tomorrow will be welcome when fellow high-fliers Sheffield Wednesday come to Madejski Stadium.
“It’s always hard not to be out there or at least be available for selection to go out there and help the lads,” said Moore.
“It was a tough game against Fulham.
“The result speaks volumes, we weren’t quite at it as a team.
“But we’ll look to come back from that this Saturday.”
He continued: “It was torture.
“But we’ve got a very tight group and I thought it would be right to go there and show my support.
“We were in on Sunday when it was very fresh still.
“We had an open discussion about what we thought went wrong and we saw some clips and then gradually through the week we’ve tried to forget about it and move on to Saturday.
“In the Championship you can’t dwell on results because games come thick and fast.”
The 5-0 thrashing at Craven Cottage was not Reading’s first heavy defeat this season.
Although the Royals have only lost five league games all campaign, three of those have seen the side ship at least four goals with 4-1 defeats at Brentford and Newcastle United as well as the Fulham loss.
And Moore, who won promotion from the Championship with former club Leicester City in 2014, warns that that trend cannot continue.
“It’s definitely something that we need to cut out of our results,” said the defender.
“There’s losing and then there’s losing badly and I think the times we have lost this season have been quite heavy.
“It doesn’t do good for morale or the league table in terms of goal difference because that’s almost like an extra point.”
Moore, 23, was one of a number of summer arrivals following the appointment of Jaap Stam.
And after finishes of 19th and 17th for Reading in the last two seasons, he admits sitting so close to the promotion spots has taken him by surprise.
“I’d be lying if I said I thought we’d be as high as we are,” said Moore.
“I came in with a bit of a negative feel from the outside of what we were actually capable of doing this season.
“I personally never believed we’d be down the bottom.
“I thought we had a lot of good players here, obviously I did a lot of research before signing on the players we’ve got here.
“I do think the boys have underachieved over the last couple of years but I definitely thought we’d be mid-table and maybe creeping into the play-offs.
“So far we’re doing better than I thought we would do.”
Moore’s return to the squad coincides with the unavailability of Danny Williams, who misses out after being sent off against Fulham.
That is likely to be the only change from last weekend with Stephen Quinn (knee), John Swift and Deniss Rakels (both ankle) all set to be out of action until the new year.
Yann Kermorgant (knee) is back in training and close to a return but is unlikely to be risked tomorrow.
