Furious Brian McDermott slams referee for allowing Manchester City’s winner

Brian Mcdermott has hit out at referee Mike Dean for allowing Manchester City’s injury time winner from Gareth Barry to stand.

The goal gave the Premier League champions a 1-0 win at the Etihad Stadium but Barry had appeared to climb over the back of Royals left-back Nicky Shorey.

And the normally mild-mannered McDermott was enraged that Dean had robbed his side of a well earned point.

After the game, he fumed: “It wasn’t a sucker punch. [Barry] was riding on his back. It was unbelievable that [Mike Dean] didn’t give that decision. I said to him, ‘when you see it back you will be absolutely gutted’. He’s made a massive error at the end.

“I apportion no blame [to Shorey]. When someone is on someone’s back, what can you do? You can’t get off the ground when you’ve got someone on your back. It is an absolute cert free-kick.”

He was also irked by Dean’s choice not to give a spot-kick earlier in the match when Jay Tabb was felled in the box by Manchester City youngster Karim Rekik.

“It’s also a cert penalty on Jay Tabb earlier in the game,” McDermott continued. “He knocked him out of the way. He didn’t play the ball. He didn’t look at the ball. It’s a penalty.

“My players did not deserve that today. Our players were terrific today. They worked their socks off and they’ve got beaten in the 93rd minute against a team that has cost millions and millions of pounds to put together.

“No one will care about it because it’s Reading. We’re a small club in this division. People will move on very, very quickly. We won’t. We’ll keep fighting.”