READING boss Paul Ince felt his side were unfortunate to leave the Stadium of Light empty-handed, insisting he never felt overly concerned in the second half despite Sunderland's dominance after the break.

Ince admitted he headed for Wearside with the plan of "nullifying" Sunderland and was delighted with his side's first half display, with the visiting boss sensing some "unrest" in the stands at half-time.

Sunderland were much-improved after the break but Ince felt Reading coped with the threats of the Black Cats, until Patrick Roberts struck late on.

Ince said: "Joe (Lumley) has made a couple of good saves and there was one over the bar but apart from that it never looked like they were going to do anything else, then you have the killer punch and you end up losing the game you shouldn't lose.

"In the first half we nullified them. You come here and there's great support, we knew it would be tough. The first half we needed to quieten the fans, and we did that, and we had opportunities where if we'd been a bit more precise on the transition we'd have opened them up.

"There was a bit of unrest in the crowd at half-time and half our job was done. Of course they'll have chances but you think you've weathered the worst of it, then make a mistake and lose the game.

"There's no point being doom and gloom. It's tough to take losing that way, especially with the journey we had. It took seven hours to get here, so I'm really pleased with how the boys dealt with against this great Sunderland crowd, it's a tough place to come. We go again. We move forward."

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Reading's Baba Rahman made an error that led to Roberts' late winner but Ince supported his defender.

He said: "It's an individual mistake but we make mistakes as one. We're one. Baba is devastated in there but we're a team. You can do this and that on the training ground but you can't coach against individual mistakes. He's devastated, it hurts him, he feels like he's let us down but he hasn't."