“World class” – Paul Ince hails Reading FC player following Blackburn Rovers victory | OneFootball

Reading manager Paul Ince heaped praise on Joe Lumley last night for his response to last weekend as the Royals secured a 3-0 victory over Blackburn Rovers last night, speaking to Berkshire Live.

The 27-year-old came into this tie after conceding four times at Rotherham United on Saturday, being criticised for his role in the second, third and fourth goals with a further scare at the New York Stadium also putting him in the limelight.

This caused some of the Berkshire outfit’s supporters to urge Ince to drop the Boro man ahead of last night’s tie against top-of-the-table Blackburn, with Ben Brereton-Diaz remaining in the starting lineup and looking as though he was going to be testing Lumley quite regularly after a promising start to the game.

One true or false question about every current Reading FC player – Can you score full marks?

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Joe Lumley wears the number one shirt at Reading.

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He failed to do so and the 27-year-old was untroubled for much of the night with the Royals limited Jon Dahl Tomasson’s men to very few shots on target – but he was called into action and made a wonderful save to keep it at 1-0 in the second half.

After that, the Royals went on to score two more to secure the three points and his crucial stop was pointed out by many including manager Ince after the game.

Speaking in his post-match press conference, Ince said: “The backline were immense – Lumley, when you think of Rotherham, I told him ‘put it to bed.

“You’ll save us more points than you cost us’ which is easy for us to say but he still had to come out with that in his head and was world class.

“He made some world class saves and that shows he has character about him. He has a tough mentality but I’m pleased for him more than anything else.”

The Verdict:

There was one moment where he did spill a corner – but Lumley’s save was a key moment and this is why he deserves to be commended because that arguably won the Royals three points on the night.

To respond like he did too just shows how much character he has and Ince will be hoping he can keep performing how he did against the likes of Cardiff City and Blackburn throughout the season.

That consistency will be key – because this is a very important season in his career and if he can impress – there’s every chance he could remain in the second tier despite a poor last campaign at the Riverside.

He looks set to miss out against parent club Boro on Saturday – and it will be interesting to see how he handles this break because he would have wanted to be back in action as quickly as possible after a performance like last night.

With three good performances and one disastrous performance in four league matches though, things are looking alright at the moment. The defence just needs to ensure they are giving him as much protection as possible.