The Royals lost 3-2 on the road to AFC Wimbledon on Saturday.
The home side took the lead in the first half through Marcus Browne, but Jack Marriott equalized just before half-time. Brown gave Don the lead again just after half-time, but the Royals got one back through Jeryl Dorsett. Brown quickly completed his hat-trick, sealing the points for the home team.
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This loss leaves us in 11th place, nine points out of the playoffs. Here’s what manager Leam Richardson had to say. He was interviewed by Royal Television.
Richardson on failure
“It’s frustrating after some good performances. We want to build on this and move forward again.
“We started the game slowly and gave them something to grab onto. Even though we had all the possession, we didn’t really hurt them. Their chances came from our possession and we were too loose on the ball. There were moments where we didn’t respect the ball enough.
“Personally, there are quite a few people who are collectively below par, myself included.
“We win together, we lose together, but, we will dust ourselves off soon. We will digest this game and we will continue playing tomorrow and then we go again.”
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Richardson reversed twice
“This is another game where we scored two goals. An away game should be enough to win the game.
“Individual mistakes happen. We had some better performances. You go to Joel Pereira, he is the best goalkeeper in the league and at the level above. So we will never criticize Joel for making positive decisions. I hope he always steps up and directs because he has done so much.
“Last weekend he got the ball out of the air a couple of times in the last five minutes and that helped so I have no problem with individual mistakes, even with young Liam Fraser coming on. That’s life.
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“But overall we weren’t at our level today and we’re going to make sure we address that because we have to look for consistency. We have to look for that edge to be competitive at this level at the high end.”
Richardson on the good form of experimenting with this piece
“This is football. You look at the league and look at the results today, for everyone. I mentioned it in the press conference yesterday, Sheffield United have been in this league for six years, Portsmouth, Sheffield Wednesday, Leeds United, Sunderland have all been in this league for four or five years.”
“This is not an easy league. You can’t quit because of your badge, you have to be methodical. You have to make the right decisions.
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“We’re coming from a place we’re familiar with, but we have to build, and we have to build the right way.
“I feel like we’re on a really good path, but I don’t feel that way right away today because of the results. We’re always judged on emotion and results, and that’s fine. That’s the industry. But you know, going forward, we’re always going to be better for it.”
Richardson rebounds on Tuesday
“That’s the best thing, isn’t it? When we win we don’t get too high and when we lose we don’t get too low.
“You have to win or learn and we will learn quickly today. Hopefully we can start another game on Tuesday because it will be a competitive game against a really good team and we will be ready for that challenge.”
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Richardson on staying calm at this time of season
“You look at the results from midweek to this weekend and I’m sure it will be the same next weekend. They all suddenly become important games. These three points, these three points are huge.
“Today is our most important game because it’s our next one, it’s our most important game of the season today, individually and collectively, we didn’t show up like we’ve been doing. We’re going to fix it, we’re going to fix it quickly and we’re going to move forward.”
Richardson on Will Keenedamage
“It’s too early to tell. So fingers crossed it’s not too bad, but again, it’s one of those things. He’s an important player for us, so fingers crossed he’s OK.”
