Exeter City boss Gary Caldwell said Reading were ‘far better in every department’ and that his side ‘struggled to cope’ during a 9-0 thrashing at St James Park.
Dominant from minute one to minute 96, the Royals earned their largest away win ever and their largest win overall since 1901 in Devon, just three weeks after losing 2-1 to the Grecians in League One action.
Tom McIntyre opened the scoring inside three minutes, while Dom Ballard, Paul Mukariu, Ben Elliott, Caylan Vickers and Taylan Harris all found the back of the net during the rout.
We’ve all had experiences-I’ve had it as a player-when you’re playing against a team and you can’t cope with what they’re doing,” he said. “You have to learn from those experiences. Those experiences need to make you stronger, and you need to come back with a real motivation to work hard to be better in every single department. That is the harsh reality of tonight for our younger players.
“I believe in our younger players and our academy, but Reading were far better in every department; physically and technically. They got after us and we didn’t know how to manage the game in that period, especially in the second half when they really got on top. It’s a big lesson for us. They weren’t an experienced team, they had one or two similar to ourselves but were mostly young players. They were better in every department, so we have to learn from that.”
Still without a league win in 10 months, the Royals travel to Blackpool on Saturday- looking for a league victory at Bloomfield Road for the first time since 2001.
