‘Dele-Bashiru's effort was onside’ – Reading’s Paunovic slams offside decision vs Barnsley

Reading manager Veljko Paunovic believes the effort by Tom Dele-Bashiru was onside and should have been allowed to stand against Barnsley in their EFL Championship fixture on Saturday.

The 22-year-old Nigeria international had the ball in the back of the net in the 27th minute, after breaking through the Barnsley line to latch onto an Ovie Ejaria cross before toeing the ball past custodian Bradley Collins from close range – but the offside flag was raised.

However, Reading went on to score in the 77th minute courtesy of John Swift as they claimed their sixth win of the campaign from 12 matches.

However, Paunovic revisited the decision by the referee to flag Dele-Bashiru, insisting the goal looked like it was onside.

“The goal that Tom Dele-Bashiru scored looked like it was onside and had that stood it would have changed the second half. That was the goal we were chasing in the first half, but it didn’t happen,” Paunovic told the club’s official website.

On the team picking up another win and keeping a clean sheet, Paunovic said: “It was a very important win for us. Another clean sheet. And I’m happy that we knew how to manage the game.

“In the first half we played very well, had some quick, creative build-up play…but we got stuck with finishing, we missed the end product in the final third.

“We knew that Barnsley, having struggled with results recently, would have gained much more confidence from going into the break at 0-0 and we knew they would come out and make it very difficult for us in the second half.”

Ahead of the game against Barnsley, Dele-Bashiru, who is on a season-long loan from Watford, called on his teammates to make sure they keep improving in every aspect of their game.

“It’s been good to get some rest in, recover and recuperate, but now I’m just eager to get going and start playing again,” the Super Eagle midfielder said.

“I think we’re just slowly upping our levels; we ended the last block of games really well with a win over Cardiff, and we just need to keep improving. 

“Defensively we can still do better, equally we need to attack more. We’re still gelling as a team, and we’ll keep working. 

“The mood has been great, the confidence is coming back amongst the boys, the players who’ve come in, they’ve really helped, and confidence is high. 

“I’m loving my time here so far, everyone has been very welcoming, we have a good group, people are always free to talk and I’m really enjoying it.”

During the game against Barnsley, other African players who featured for Reading included the Ghanaian duo of Andy Yiadom and Abdul Rahman Baba.

Reading will next host struggling Blackpool at Madejski Stadium on Wednesday.