Reading boss lauds ‘excellent’ £1m Portsmouth man after timely League One emergence
Pompey loanee Josh Knight registered his first league outing for Reading on Saturday.
Leam Richardson has hailed Josh Knight's ‘excellent’ showing in Reading’s goalless draw against promotion rivals Plymouth Argyle.
And the head coach has explained why the Pompey loanee was handed his first start for the Royals since his August arrival.
It had been a difficult start at the Select Car Leasing Stadium for the centre-back after John Mousinho sanctioned his temporary exit in the summer - just 12 months after his £1m Fratton Park arrival.
But after being named on the bench in the previous three League One matches, the 29-year-old was handed his full Reading debut in Saturday’s huge showdown against promotion rivals Plymouth Argyle.
And the £1m man stood up to the test against the fifth-placed Argyle, who had former Pompey target Bim Pepple amongst their attacking ranks.
Indeed, Knight’s display along with fellow centre-back Paudie O’Connor and goalkeeper Joel Pereira was heavily praised by Richardson as he highlighted the impressive contribution of the trio to keep the scores level.
And although niggles and availability required Knight to come in and make his debut, the Reading boss was delighted with the showing.
Reading boss lauds ‘excellent’ Pompey loanee after timely emergence
Speaking to BBC Radio Berkshire, he said: ‘Again, I’ve got a big thing if we don’t find that little bit of quality or that final pass within the game. All our flair players have to be on their game and that’s what they’re challenged to do, if we don’t win we’ve got to make sure we don’t lose.
‘That’s the pleasing thing today (on Saturday) because we had to stand up to a lot of duels within that, a lot of restarts which we expected and I thought we dealt with it really well with Joel (Pereira) Paudie (O’Connor) and Knighty (Josh Knight), who were excellent in that triangle.
‘(The changes) were a little bit enforced with niggles and things but it helped us knowing coming here that we had to make sure physically we stood up to the challenge.
‘They’re (Plymouth) very high on balls into your box on restarts, long throws, corners and free kicks, you know where it’s going. They play forward quickly and you have to manage them duels.
‘They’ve got a handful of a front three with (Will) Evans (Bim) Pepple and (Xavier) Ameichi so we had to make sure we were very adequate in our actions with that. So team selection came in there but just a little bit disappointed we didn’t find that final action.
‘But, I’m very, very pleased with a clean sheet and pleased with the focus, work ethic and endeavour that our players showed.’
The Blues boss warned the duo’s respective agreements could be scrapped if game time remains limited, with the head coach revealing Pompey do have options on the pair.