Michael Morrison singles out Reading FC teammate for praise despite Bristol City defeat

Reading centre-back Michael Morrison has heaped praise on new signing Tom Ince for the impact he had in yesterday evening’s loss to Bristol City, as he spoke to his side’s media team at Ashton Gate.

Coming in for his debut following his deadline day loan arrival from Stoke City, with ex-captain Liam Moore heading the other way to join Michael O’Neill’s side, he lined up on the right-hand side as an advanced wide man alongside Junior Hoilett and Tom Dele-Bashiru.

Although the Royals were poor in large parts of the game, it was his movement that managed to get the Berkshire outfit back into the tie in the 74th minute after seeing his new side go 2-0 down to the Robins, displaying excellent footwork in the area and winning a penalty after being taken down by Timm Klose.

John Swift converted the resulting penalty without any problems, setting up a nervy quarter of an hour for the hosts who had looked reasonably comfortable prior to the spot-kick incident.

Ince played his part after winning the penalty in pushing for a much-needed equaliser – but despite his endeavour – he was unable to guide the second-tier strugglers to their first point since the early stages of January.

Nonetheless, last night’s captain Morrison was extremely impressed with the winger’s display and singled the 30-year-old out for praise as the defender spoke post-match.

He said: “To be fair to the lads, I think the fans could see that we stuck with it and put in a much better performance in the second half and deserved something out of the game.

“Bristol City will know they’ve gone in very lucky – yes they defended their goals but on another day it could have gone in for us.

“One positive is that Tom Ince has come in and looked good down that side;