Blasts from the past!

Royals revive Drinkwater and Carroll

ANDY Carroll and Danny Drinkwater revived memories of past glories as they both scored in a vital win for Reading.

The former England internationals claimed their first goals since joining the Royals as Veljko Paunovic’s side won for the first time since their six-point deduction.

Carroll had not scored since January and his strike to put Reading 2-1 ahead was only his third goal in four seasons.

For Drinkwater, the wait had been even longer as the midfielder’s last goal was almost three years ago when he was at Chelsea. But he showed real composure to claim the 50th-minute winner as Swansea twice conceded within seconds of scoring.

It may only have been flashes of both Carroll and Drinkwater at their peak but it was enough to give Reading a vital win after what has been a difficult period following their loss of six points for breaking financial regulations.

Jamie Paterson had put Swansea ahead in the third minute only for

Tom Dele-Bashiru to equalise little more than 60 seconds later.

Carroll then struck midway through the first half and although Ryan Manning levelled it was Drinkwater who struck the winner to hand Swansea their first home defeat since August. Both Carroll and Drinkwater rolled back the years with moments of class and manager Paunovic said: ‘We needed a performance from them like this and for them to score goals to help their confidence, but also to create an atmosphere for the team of cohesion.

‘They are very important with their experience, presence, composure and qualities. We are dealing with a lot of long-term injuries and the recent points deduction.

‘We said this week we needed a win as soon as possible. We gave a statement we are never going to give up. We are all in this together and we are going to fight.’

A defence-splitting pass from Korey Smith enabled Paterson to score his eighth goal of the season. But the Swansea lead was shortlived as Dele-Bashiru struck after he was found by the impressive John Swift.

Carroll then revived memories of his pomp with Newcastle and Liverpool by using his strength to hold off two defenders and fire low past Ben Hamer to give Reading the lead.

Swansea’s best spell just after half time ended with Manning striking a vicious volley to make it 2-2, but straight from the restart, Dele-Bashiru was given far too much room and although his shot struck the post, the experienced Drinkwater showed a wise old head to strike home the rebound. Swansea launched a late rally, but two excellent saves from Luke Southwood kept them at bay and a goalmouth scramble just would not fall in their favour.

Swansea boss Russell Martin admitted: ‘The lack of intensity out of possession has really hurt us.

‘In the second half I thought we played some great stuff, we scored the goal, and you think, “OK, maybe we’ll go on to win it now” but to concede so quickly is criminal. It’s such a poor goal.

‘We’ve conceded three goals where we’ve let people back inside the pitch which doesn’t happen usually. That is seriously frustrating and I’ve told the players they should be hurt by that.’