Veljko Paunovic expects more maturity from his side

Reading

failed to play well in the first half and trailed to two

Jon Toral

goals at the break.

Birmingham

was playing the final 20 minutes with ten men as Captain

Harlee Dean

was sent off for picking up a yellow card when he brought down

Yakou Meite

in the box and Reading was awarded a penalty, but

Lucas Joao

saw his resultant penalty save by

Neil Etheridge

.

“We have been in these situations in the past when we have been down at half-time,” Paunovic said.

“We couldn’t come back completely, even though the reaction was positive.

“We have to put ourselves to the next level, the level of maturity, the level when we can deal with adversity.

“But I still think this a fantastic group and I am so happy to work with them.

“I just wish we had started the first half like we started the second half.

“We put out the same line-up as the last game. Maybe it was the fatigue, may be a little bit of heavy legs.

“But we didn’t look the same as in the last four games.”

“The reaction in the second half, though, was fantastic. Our goal came at the right time and our penalty, too.

“After that, we struggled to recover from that mistake [the penalty miss]. It took too long.

“I understand that you can be disappointed when you miss a penalty – as a team – but you cannot afford to give your opponent a chance to come back.”

Birmingham

boss

Aitor Karanka

praised his team’s performance after the game.

"It was a game in which to be proud of this group of players. I said a few weeks ago that people should be patient and so it has proved." Aitor Karanka said.

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