Steve Coppell believed the Royals deserved their last-gasp 2-1 victory over Sunderland.
Reading boss believes Royals deserved to beat Sunderland, despite a controversial winner
Reading manager Steve Coppell believed the Royals deserved their last-gasp 2-1 victory over Sunderland at the Madejski Stadium.
The game ended in controversy when Stephen Hunt converted a Shane Long cross deep into injury-time but Sunderland believed the ball had not crossed the line.
Earlier Reading had taken the lead in the 69th minute when Ivar Ingimarsson netted after Craig Gordon parried an Ibrahima Sonko header from a free-kick into his path.
Sunderland then equalised in the 82nd minute through a Michael Chopra penalty after Sonko had needlessly brought Kenwyne Jones down in the box.
Eventful
Speaking of the game, Coppell said: "Christmas come early - that is what we have to think to be honest.
"Today it was an eventful game, it was a game I felt on the run of play we should have been more comfortable with.
"We had a lot of possession first half, a lot of strikes, a lot of free-kicks, a lot of fouls. We had opportunities, not scoring puts a little seed of doubt in your mind," said Coppell, who believed Reading's second-half performance was not their best.
"We got our nose in front and then I thought we should have really closed the game out. As often happens, the game then opened up and over the balance of the last ten-15 minutes we could very easily have lost that game."
Controversial
Coppell had not seen replays of the controversial winning goal but said the linesman had been in a great position and given his decision straight away.
He added: "I felt we deserved it but I'm bound to say that. In the first 45 minutes we had the majority of the play and chances although they had one excellent chance.
"When we got the goal I would have hoped it would turn out to be one of those emphatic 1-0 wins but as often happens the goal was the signal for the final act in the play and the final act almost turned into a tragedy but in the end was fortunate, which is the best way of putting it."
