ADRIAN POPA produced arguably his best display in a Reading shirt as the Royals saw off Aston Villa 2-1 on Tuesday night.
The Romanian twice came close to breaking the deadlock in the first half before his cross forced Glenn Whelan to divert into his own net just after half-time.
Mo Barrow again impressed, netting his first goal for the club, while John Swift continues to grow in confidence.
REACTION: Stam on “dominating” Villa, Mo Barrow and injury latest
Ratings (out of 10):
VITO MANNONE – Made one early save but had very little to do all evening and was blameless for the Villa goal – 6
CHRIS GUNTER – Final ball often lacking but solid enough defensively – 6
PAUL MCSHANE – Marshalled the defence well to keep Mannone relatively untroubled – 7
LIAM MOORE – Kept the Villa attack quiet and set up Barrow’s goal – 7
TYLER BLACKETT – Got forward well in the first half but had little impact on the game at either end – 6
JOEY VAN DEN BERG – Nervy start but grew into the game and looks to have got Saturday’s error out of his system – 7
LIAM KELLY – Started brightly but faded as the game went on – 6
JOHN SWIFT – Showed some nice touches and appears to be growing in confidence again – 7
MODOU BARROW – Another fine outing from the Gambian, capped off with his first Reading goal – 8
ADRIAN POPA – Unlucky not to score in the first half and forced the own goal. Lively display – 8* (star man)
PELLE CLEMENT – Didn’t look like a centre forward and struggled to get involved when drifting out wide – 5
Subs –
GEORGE EVANS – Neat and tidy in midfield for last 20 minutes but game often bypassed him – 5
GARATH MCCLEARY – Showed some nice flicks but a couple of late fouls could have proved costly – 5
ROY BEERENS – Very few touches of the ball in his 13 minute cameo, but good to see him back from injury – n/a
