"Swansea are a good side and give you all sorts of problems," he said.
"But you can't congratulate yourself when you only get one point at home.
"I had a text from Steve Coppell which said 'wng'. It took me a while to work it out, but then I realised it meant 'win next game'.
"That's been our motto for a while now at the Madejski and you can't do worse than follow the guidance of Steve, who has been the most successful manager Reading have had."
Asked if he might be considered a cheap option as manager McDermott replied.
"I am not that cheap," he added.
"I do want to be given the job here but that's a board decision. I am quite relaxed about it. I just do my work from day to day."
Swansea boss Paulo Sousa was unhappy with the officials.
"In this game I am not happy with a point away from home. Bad decisions cost us the game. I consider it to be two points dropped."
Sousa was unhappy with the timekeeping that had allowed Reading to score during injury time in the first half.
"They signalled one minute of additional time but there was two minutes and forty seconds," he said.
"Once more we saw bad decisions against us but it is not something I want to talk about today.
"Officials are an important part of the game and they need to help. They need to be at the same level as the teams.
"It was a difficult game against a squad trying to impress a new manager. We played with great effort and personality."