Peterborough manager Luke Williams heaped praise on forward Harry Leonard for his sublime 68th-minute winner in the 2-1 Sky Bet League One victory at Reading.
Jimmy-Jay Morgan gave Posh a second-minute lead but Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan equalised for the Royals on the hour mark.
Leonard struck eight minutes later with his fifth goal of the season from a rasping 20-yard drive – ending United’s four-match losing run in all competitions.
“Harry is a really talented boy,” Williams said. “But we can’t rely on him to score goals like that week in, week out.
“We need to provide him with some easier chances than that.
“Harry ran himself into the ground for the team and I’m really pleased for him that he got the goal.
“We’re all grateful to him and, really, it’s a bit of a bonus to get that type of goal. It was brilliant.
“I was pleased with the way that we started the game and with our energy throughout the whole game. We worked so hard to get the right result.
“We had some tired bodies out there but it just shows the character of the group.
“We needed a response after our recent run and that was a great response, especially away from home.
“We feel better because we won and we won because of a strong team effort.
“Now we should feel very confident going into the game against Northampton on Saturday, especially as it’s at home.”
Reading saw their five-match unbeaten league run come to end in what was also new manager Leam Richardson’s first League One defeat in four outings.
“First and foremost, you’ve got to be gracious,” Richardson said.
“We win together, we lose together, and congratulations to Peterborough.
“My initial thoughts and reaction are that I’m very disappointed, to say the least, in how we started the game.
“In my opinion, we lost the game in the first five minutes.
“We’re at home, we wanted to start fast. We wanted to take the impetus and build on our away win (3-0 at Blackpool).
“If you want to go for promotion, you have to back up an away win with a home win.
“We had an opportunity to do that tonight. It sounds simple on paper but that was the challenge.
“We were ahead in the stats. On everything: with chances, shots, touches in their box, final-third entries.
“But we lose out on the main one that counts and which everyone points the finger at straightaway.
“I thought that we got emotionally attached to the game in the second half, perhaps doing the wrong things for the right reasons – chasing the game a little bit.
“But we’ll get better as we evolve.”
