Reading boss speaks on Spurs test

Reading boss Brian McDermott has revealed that he is likely to name an unchanged side when his team travel to White Hart Lane tomorrow.

The Royals ended 2012 with a 1-0 win against West Ham United and with games coming thick and fast, McDermott believes that with a number of his players having Championship experience it’s nothing new for them to be playing on such a regular basis.

AVB on the other hand will have to make at least one change after Gareth Bale unfairly picked up his fifth booking of the season at Sunderland which means he will have to sit out the Reading match. I’m still baffled at how Martin Atkinson decided to book Bale when there was clearly knee and arm contact from the Sunderland player. Andros Townsend posted on Twitter that he’s suffering from ‘flu so it will be interesting to see who does pop up on the left wing – thoughts anyone?

“We are used to playing so many games from the Championship so it isn’t really relevant to me. They love playing so we are getting results and sticking with the team, that is how I do it,” The Reading boss told the pre-match press conference.

“Gareth Bale is a top, top player, but they are not a one-man team, they have got players all over the shop now, terrific players,” he added

“I really like the manager (Andre Villas-Boas), he is a friend of mine. They have got one of our old players in Gylfi Sigurdsson, who we had here since he was 14, a top lad and a top player so we know what we are coming up against.”

We beat Reading 3-1 earlier in the season and we’ll be hoping for more of the same tomorrow.

“I obviously didn’t learn too much because that was earlier in the season but we are learning now,” he said.

“They played well that day and we didn’t really compete the way we need to compete, but that was a long time ago and we need to make sure we go to White Hart Lane, get it right and see what the outcome will be.”

“At the moment we want to pick up points, that’s what makes people happy around here.”