Reading suffered a humiliating result yesterday afternoon as they were hammered 4-0 away at Rotherham United, a result that has damaged morale in the Berkshire side's fanbase.

Having conceded early on against Blackpool and Cardiff City in their previous two games, they were desperate to keep the Millers at bay early on but their efforts proved to be to no avail, with Richard Wood climbing above Tom McIntyre to put the hosts 1-o up after seven minutes.

Two more goals followed before the 20th-minute mark, with Conor Washington blasting the ball home before Joe Lumley's howler from Jamie Lindsay's shot made it 3-0.

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately for the Royals, the humiliation didn't stop with Chiedozie Ogbene capitalising on another Lumley error to make it 4-0 just before half-time, a real shock to the system for the visitors after recording such an impressive victory against Cardiff City last weekend.

Paul Warne's side will be delighted with this result after waiting two weeks to return to league action following their postponed game against Coventry City - but there's plenty for Paul Ince to be doing to get his side physically and mentally prepared for Wednesday's clash against Blackburn Rovers.

Looking to the recent past though, we discuss three things we learnt about the Berkshire outfit after yesterday's hammering in Yorkshire.

Bouzanis has a chance of starting

Lumley enjoyed a reasonably decent opening two league matches between the sticks for the Royals, something that was much-needed for him following a disappointing campaign at Middlesbrough last term.

However, he had a shocker yesterday afternoon, failing to come out for the second goal despite being favourite to win the ball against Washington.

The third goal was even worse and around that point, he rushed out of his area recklessly and that nearly led to the Berkshire side conceding another goal.

He did similar for the fourth and this time, it proved to be costly with Ogbene taking it around him and placing the ball into an empty net.

Although Ince decided to keep him on, it wouldn't be a surprise to see Dean Bouzanis start in midweek with Lumley's confidence unlikely to be sky high at this stage.

They need more going forward and their injured players back

Although their defence was extremely poor at the New York Stadium, with Tom McIntyre and Lumley both having torrid afternoons, they also failed to be clinical with their chances when going forward.

Tom Ince and Junior Hoilett looked reasonably threatening going forward - but they didn't create enough clear-cut opportunities and weren't prolific with the chances they did have.

In fairness, Lucas Joao and Yakou Meite are yet to return and they are comfortably the second-tier side's best options going forward, but more is needed in the final third and they couldn't do enough to get themselves back in the game.

John Swift's departure has created a huge void in their side and you just feel they were missing his presence yesterday, especially with another attacking midfielder in Ovie Ejaria out of action at this stage.

They need to start games on the front foot

Conceding early on in their opening three games of the season, this is a concerning trend and one they will need to bury if they want to give themselves the best chance of remaining afloat in the division.

If they don't, they will give themselves a mountain to climb in most games and that is the last thing they need with their limited squad depth and other factors against them.

Two of the most successful Reading teams of all time (the 2005/06 and 2011/12 sides) prided themselves on starting quickly and that was arguably key to their success, so that's something to work on.

It may take a lot of mental strength to turn the tide in terms of this issue though, so it will be interesting to see whether they can overcome this trend anytime soon.