Former Reading manager Mick Gooding slammed defender Baba Rahman after his mistake cost the side in their 1-0 defeat to Sunderland on Saturday.

Battling hard for a point at the Stadium of Light, Baba was dispossessed in his penalty box with five minutes remaining, helping Patrick Roberts score the decisive goal with barely any time for a Royal response.

A former player with over 300 appearances, and a manager in the 1990s, Geordie Gooding has covered the club for BBC Berkshire for almost two decades.

Speaking on the radio coverage after the defeat, Gooding did not hold back in his verdict.

“As a footballer, you’ve got decisions to make," he said. If you make, in my opinion the right decision, but you don’t carry it off then that’s fine. But when you make the wrong decision- he’s tried a double drag back in the corner of his own six-yard box rather than just clearing it out of play. You learn that when you’re 10, you don’t do things like that in your own six-yard box. It’s ridiculous. Yes, he’ll be gutted about it and yes, he might lose a little bit of sleep tonight, but he’s cost his team a point because he’s been reckless.”

In the midst of a hectic schedule, the side host Rotherham United on Tuesday before travelling to Cardiff City on Friday.