Confidence should be high despite cup controversy

[BBC] It's been a bad week for officials. Hot on the heels of the VAR fiasco in the Manchester derby, the match officials mysteriously ruled out a perfectly good equaliser for Reading against Brentford in the Carabao Cup third round. There was also a clear handball penalty shout turned down later in the game, but nobody is talking about that because the disallowed goal was so outrageous. Referee Tom Nield, with a bit of help from his assistant, decided Paudie O'Connor's acrobatic goal should not stand, because his boot flew too high. The officials' only possible justification was they were momentarily stunned by the big central defender suddenly morphing into Zlatan Ibrahimovic. "It was in the top three worst decisions I've seen," said an understandably disgruntled Royals boss Leam Richardson. "It was one of the worst decisions I've seen in my whole life," said irritated midfielder Charlie Savage. The rest of us could only nod and agree. Paudie O'Connor pulled a goal back for Reading but saw another strike disallowed for a high boot [Getty Images] Reading fans left the SCL Stadium upset with the officials after the 2-1 defeat on Tuesday evening, but they're likely to be upset before they even arrive for the game against Notts County on Saturday. Officials from Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) have decided it will be a good weekend to replace a pylon, and will close junction 11 of the M4, right next to the stadium. The knock-on for both Reading and Notts County fans trying to get to the ground, along with those trying to get to the race meeting at Newbury and the Newbury show a couple of junctions west, is likely to be severe. On the pitch, despite losing last Saturday in the league at Cambridge, and then to Brentford, the players ought to be confident. Giving a fright to a Premier League team, who resorted to bringing on Igor Thiago of Brazil to try to seal the game, was impressive. There appears to be competition for places across the pitch in the Reading camp, which just has not been the case for the past couple of seasons.