McDermott on Spurs defeat

Brian McDermott says our fans' applause at full time showed the effort the players had put in, despite a 3-1 defeat at Spurs.





Our supporters at White Hart Lane saw the Royals take an early lead through Pavel Pogrebnyak, and we also came very close to equalising at 2-1 on three separate occasions.



But a hugely deflected Clint Dempsey effort was the final nail in our coffin.





Brian said, "Our fans clapped the players off at full time and that tells you something. I'm never happy when we don't win but we showed a great spirit today.





"When you come to White Hart Lane, playing against this team, you know they're going to have a lot of possession with what they've got going forward. We saw what they did to Aston Villa recently. They have a good side here and credit to them. They've been building the team for a few years and spent money, Harry started it and now Andre is doing a good job. But we gave them a game.





"When we went in front, I thought if we could get in at half time 1-0 we had a chance. It was a great free kick from Hartey and Pavel headed in. But we got done on a set play and the second one was a good goal, Lennon and Adebayor did well.





"Then at 2-1 we had opportunities, I've seen them again and we were very unfortunate not to score from any of them. Dawson cleared Pearce's header one off the line, Lloris saved well from Pavel then he headed wide and Walker got back with real pace on Jimmy. I was gutted with those, to be honest.





"Then they got a fortunate third with a deflection, if we'd kept it 2-1 we might have pushed again. Adam Federici had done really well and was unlucky with the third.





"As I said the desire, spirit and shape was good, I can't fault our players and credit goes to our lads. We should have got something at Man City and now today we pushed Spurs which gives me real heart, as does coming to work each and every day with these guys. I love working with them.





"We won't have to come to places like these every week, it's notoriously difficult here and Spurs will do well this season."



See Brian's full post-match video reaction on Reading FC Player now.