LONDON – Reading boss Brian McDermott revealed he confronted the assistant referee he accused of costing his side a famous result after they went down 4-2 to Chelsea in a Premier League clash on Wednesday night.
A gutted McDermott said: “He (Torres) was offside and it was not a good night for him (the assistant). It’s not been a good night for me, either. I just said to him he’d got it wrong. My gut feeling was that it was offside and it was clearly offside. Unfortunate for him.
“He said he’d have a look at it. He can have a look at it. That’s life. People make mistakes and he’s made a mistake tonight. It’s just a shame it was for such a crucial goal because we would definitely have got a point. I’m really disappointed for the players.
“We didn’t deserve to lose the game. I thought we were going to win it when we got to 70-odd minutes.”
Reading keeper Adam Federici had a nightmare for the second time in five days to gift Gary Cahill an equaliser. McDermott said: “I’m not concerned about him at all. He’s got fantastic mentality. It’s like everything; once a result has happened, you have to box it off. You can’t affect that. You have to move on.
“He’s not overwhelmed by the Premier League. It was just one of those things. The shot’s moved and it’s gone in. That’s life. Nothing we can do about that now.”
Chelsea boss Roberto Di Matteo said he had yet to see Torres’ goal, which also allowed Branislav Ivanovic to kill off Reading on the break.
“I looked at the linesman straight away and he gave it straight away, so I can’t comment,” said Di Matteo, who was pleased to see his side go top of the Premier League for the first time since November 2010. “We are very pleased with six points after two games.
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“I was very happy with the team’s performance for long periods of the game. We lost a bit our composure after Reading scored the equaliser and second goal, but we’d started off very well, with some great football and finished off very strongly.”
The positives included another standout performance from new signing Eden Hazard, who helped himself to three more assists to add to his pair at Wigan last Sunday. Di Matteo said: “Hazard had an impact in our team. He’s finding his feet very quickly, so that is pleasing for us.”
