Ollie And McDermott Reflect

Ian Holloway was very pleased with his side after the 2-0 win against Reading, feeling that they knuckled down and got the job done in a game that wasn't easy on the eye - something that they've not really done with any conviction of late.

Indeed, Ollie was that impressed with the lads that he gave them yesterday off.

'I wrote the word ugly on the board at half time and I wasn't talking about myself, although I could have been,' he said.

'It was a very difficult game for both sides but we did the right things. Reading won four games in a row so that is a major scalp for us.

'We put our bodies in the right place and scored two magnificent goals which won us the game.'

As for Brian McDermott, well he blamed the pitch, although he also conceded that his lads simply didn't turn up on the day.

'The pitch makes it a bit of a lottery but having said that they played the pitch better than we did although I know that Ian doesn't want to play on a pitch like that any more than we do,' said McDermott.

'We were flat today. We didn't do enough and I don't know why that is.'

His last paragraph has probably saved him from some Ollie criticism after the 'Pool manager criticised both Darren Ferguson and Gordon Strachan prior to Saturday's game for their comments about their recent games against the Seasiders, where bothh managers claimed that they should have beaten the Seasiders. Should have gone to Specsavers.

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