PAOLO Di Canio was encouraged by his side’s first-half display at the County Ground today as Swindon suffered their first defeat in pre-season with a 2-1 loss to Reading.

The Robins dominated much of the opening exchanges and were deservedly ahead when Alex Pearce’s attempted clearance from Raffa De Vita’s cross ballooned into the back of his own net with just over 20 minutes gone.

Reading got into the game more as the half wore on but Town were still largely untroubled and deservedly had the advantage at the break.

But the visitors levelled early in the second half when Shane Long despatched a penalty after Paul Caddis brought down Jobi McAnuff and substitute Mathieu Manset sealed the victory when he headed home from Jimmy Kebe’s cross.

By the time the second goal had gone in, Di Canio had already made numerous changes to his side and so he preferred to reflect on the performance of his starting 11, who the Italian believed more than matched their Championship opponents.

“I’m delighted with them. I saw many sad faces and I told them that I am happy that they are sad because that means they wanted it,” he said.

“But we have to be realistic and they must realise they gave everything today in the first 40 minutes. They had desire, passion and commitment.

“Reading are a Championship side and will be fighting to play in the Premier League this season and for the first 40 minutes we were the better side.

“I spoke to Brian (McDermott) in my office afterwards and he told me that he was very worried in the first half because my side has fantastic discipline. We attacked in numbers, created chances and kept our shape and we did not give them anything.

“The first 40 minutes were great, obviously we have to improve because we need to play like that for the full 90 minutes in the future but I could not expect more.

“We knew before the game it would be very tough. You can see the different level of the two sides when we did not put them under pressure.”

Di Canio's starting 11 differs greatly from the side that finished bottom of League One last season, while Reading have kept much of the squad that took them to the play-off final last season.

“They have a number of players in their squad who have played at the top level for seven or eight years ago,” added the Town boss.

“Here we have only been putting something together for 20 days or so with players who for six or seven years have not, unfortunately for them, not had a very good pre-season at a very good level.”