Richardson welcomes back 'influential' Marriott

Reading manager Leam Richardson has welcomed "influential" striker Jack Marriott back into the Royals' squad following an absence of more than seven weeks because of injury.

Marriott joined Reading from Wrexham in the summer and started the season well, scoring in six of his first eight appearances for the League One club, before picking up a hamstring injury which meant he missed five league matches.

The 31-year-old forward was reintroduced to the Reading team on Tuesday, making his first appearance under recently-appointed boss Richardson when he came off the bench in their home defeat by Peterborough United.

He played just under half an hour of Tuesday's 2-1 loss.

"His numbers are very good, he's very influential and he's a goalscorer," Richardson told BBC Radio Berkshire.

"You can never have enough goalscorers because you've got to carry a threat and you've got to carry a punch on the pitch.

"That was the disappointing thing (against Peterborough) because I thought we had enough goals on the pitch and we made the wrong decision a lot of the times."

In Marriott's absence, Reading have been deploying Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan in the middle of their attack.

In 20 appearances across all competitions, the forward has scored three times and found the net in the second half of Tuesday's defeat.

"He's fantastic, I'm made up for him to get the goal," Richardson added.

"He's a young man learning the game and we've certainly got to help him, give him that encouragement and give him that confidence to do that on our pitch.

"That's why we're here, to make them better players and better people but there is a real competition for places, and when you fear for your place or fear something, you do something about it, so it's great to have competition for places."