'Be more like Sunderland fans,' Championship boss tells his own supporters

Reading boss Paul Ince has held up Sunderland fans as the standard to which his own club’s supporters should be aspiring.

The Royals signed off for the first part of the season with a solid 2-1 away win at Hull – a result that leaves them sitting nicely in midtable.

However, while Reading go into the World Cup break slightly ahead of Sunderland in the Championship table, Ince has named the traveling Black Cats fans as the level of support he’d love to receive from the stands.

"They [the Reading fans] were brilliant at Hull," Ince said. "It's so important because we've had so many away games and I'm just pleased we managed to send them back with a victory.

"But it would be nice if we could get some more support. I watched Birmingham versus Sunderland on Friday night and Sunderland had 2,000 fans. That's something we need to build as a club - all of us - to try and get that type of attendance in two or three years' time.

"But to have our fans there, sometimes it's quite nice seeing them in the corner [of the stadium] singing and shouting and seeing them come down at the end is great.

“My job is to make these fans happy - you can't do it all the time but work will be a lot happier for them than if we were beaten at Hull."