Lewis Wing’s free-kick put the Royals ahead in the first half, but Sam Nombe and Hakeem Odoffin scored within 10 minutes of the restart to turn the game on its head.
It went from bad to worse for Ruben Selles as Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan was sent off for getting involved in an altercation following a heavy tackle on 16-year-old Andre Garcia.
Selles admitted he felt ‘let down’ by both Ehibhatiomhan and Garcia, with both youngsters getting involved despite already being shown a yellow card earlier in the clash.
Evans, now in his second spell with the Millers, spoke of the clash after the game and expects to see more action for a ‘wicked punch.’
“In isolation, the red card is a red card every day of the week,” he told the club channel. “I think the FA might look at another punch in there. I didn’t see it; I turned my back and didn’t even see why the boy should be sent off but I’m hearing it. There is a wicked punch in there that will probably lead to further action.”
The Royals, to their credit, rallied and could have equalised at the death as Sam Smith’s effort rebounded off the post and into the grateful arms of goalkeeper Cameron Dawson.
“I’ve been there as a manager when you go down to 10 men and there’s a team under pressure to win a home game- you can throw caution to the wind,” Evans said. “They were going man-for-man at the back and sometimes a man less, hence why sometimes we got in so many good areas and end up 3v1 and 4v2. We don’t end up like that because they’re all doing their job, it’s because they’re all gambling.
“You have to rely on the back four and back five in there to defend the box and stop crosses and win headers. You can see in that last passage of play, my two centre-backs have won four or five big headers each and to be fair to the quality of the Savage’s and Wing’s, they kept bouncing the ball back into the box.”
Reading, who had won their previous two League One matches, don’t return to league action until next Saturday due to international involvement.
