Reading fell to a narrow defeat against promotion-chasing Sheffield United.

Here is every word from boss Paul Ince.

Ince on the game

We played well today, really well. Disappointed we didn’t get anything from the game. It was a great response after the poor second half against Boro on Saturday. There was a reaction today. You’re playing a team who could go up automatically or via the play-offs and we competed. We played some good football, mixed it up well but the last 15 minutes they were kicking it up the park, at panic stations. I get that, because today was a massive win for them to go seven clear of Boro, but for us it was disappointing because we played so well today. I thought we deserved something out of the game.

Ince on end product

When you look at the goal we had one mistake, one fine detail, and they go bang-bang and score. That’s what you get when you pay that amount of money. Some things wouldn’t fall for us in the box, Andy Carroll had a great header tipped over the bar, Thomas [Ince] has two that goes past the post. The first one that he hits that just goes past the far post, someone has to be at the far post for a tap in. Sometimes I don’t think we’re hungry enough to score. Today is about being positive because I thought the performance warrants that. You could say that a few chances wouldn’t drop for us but I was one run from deep that cost us effectively. I’m more pleased with the performance, I thought we were very good today.

Ince on setting standards

They’re disappointed in there, but I said to them that you’ve got 11 games. Not just at home, we should be able to perform like this away- there’s no reason why you can’t. That’s the level that you have to perform at, on a consistent basis. We saw Naby Sarr, outstanding today, we need that consistency from our players. Tom McIntyre was very very good, Shane Long looked like he was 18 again. That performance shouldn’t be because Sheffield United have come to town, it should be for whoever comes to town and whoever we play away. That’s on them now. They’ve taken responsibility to say we can perform like that, now you have to do it for 11 games.

Ince on Liam Moore return

I wasn’t here. Liam Moore has tried so hard to get back into the team. He’s had a couple of major setbacks but if you watch him in training you’ll realise what a great acquisition he’ll be for us, he’s like a new player. With Tom Holmes just coming back anyway, it was probably the right time to give him three or four minutes. I am not here to worry about what has happened in the past, I can’t control what happened in the past, all I can try and impact is the future.

Ince on Yakou Meite injury

Yakou is injured, not sure if it is going to be three or four weeks. That’s another blow to us, because he was just finding his feet and playing well.