Reading boss on Harborough Town FA Cup victory, squad rotation and Kanu red card

Reading boss Ruben Selles is using Sunday's 5-3 win over Harborough Town in the FA Cup as a useful 'learning' exercise for his young squad.

The Royals battled hard and needed extra time to scrape past the seventh tier outfit but are in the hat for the third round draw on Monday.

Charlie Savage, Adrian Akande and Chem Campbell's brace did the damage, while the Bees lead in the first half and equalised in the final 10 minutes of normal time to force an extra 30 minutes.

Speaking after the victory, Selles said: "We know with these games in the FA Cup that it doesn’t matter who the opponent is- they presented a team that had a clear idea. We knew it and I think it is a part of our journey as a team, to get exposed to the massive pressure.

"It is not often that we have a game that is must-win, and today was must-win. We felt the pressure in some parts of the game, making mistakes that we are not used to, but at the end we went through and went through with a squad and everyone together. We went through with our style and defending those long balls, second actions and throw-ins. It was a good learning for us.

"The majority of games we play, because of the situation of the club and the Academy players, we have the feeling of playing without pressure sometimes. This was a must-win today and you need to feel that pressure. We felt it, suffered it and went through it so it should be a good learning for us."

Hosting Cambridge United in League One on Tuesday, there were fears among supporters that the likes of Lewis Wing, Savage and Ben Elliott would tire ahead of a more important league fixture.

However, despite playing over two hours, Selles admitted it is not much more work than his players would do two days ahead of any other fixture.

"We managed to make the players that are usually playing in the league have little more than half of the game. That is what we usually would do on a day like today at training, so that’s why we decided to stay as it was.

"Players like Charlie [Savage], Ben [Elliott] or [Lewis] Wing, their distances today and physical metrics are what they would do in matchday minus two. It is going to be about recovery for some of the others, especially the young ones like Andre [Garcia] and Ashqar [Ahmed] that played 120 minutes for the first time in professional football."

The major disappointment was a red card for teenager Abraham Kanu, who received two bookings.

"The entire back line was very young without much experience," Selles explained. "That’s why these games will make us better, because Abraham was late twice. The first one is a bad pass from a teammate, and he’s covered the space. The second one was almost last man in the line.

"I think it is a big learning for him but things happen. If it didn’t happen today, it could have happened in League One or another scenario so we need to use it. It was a fair second yellow and not good for the team because we played a long time with 10 players, but it gives us a different flavour of what we can do with 10 players.

"Hopefully he will put it in practise the next time he steps on the pitch and as a team we know it doesn’t matter if we have 10 players, we can still score goals."

The draw for round three takes place on BBC Two from 7pm on Monday.