Reading fell to a 1-0 defeat at home to Bristol City on Tuesday night, which seemed unfortunate considering the chances the Royals had late on.

In truth, it was a rather lacklustre display from Mark Bowen's side and they couldn't quite hit top gear throughout the fixture.

The Royals next travel to Cardiff in the Championship, and the game comes around as soon as Friday night. One player who wasn't quite at his best was midfielder Ovie Ejaria.

The Liverpool loanee played the full game for the Royals but failed to contribute to any real attacking threat and at times he showed the flaws in his game.

Obviously, the midfielder has been brilliant at times throughout this campaign, and one bad games shouldn't mean that he is dropped from the Reading side. One key thing that Ejaria needs to learn is the capability of knowing when to pass the ball - a vital component for a skilful attacking midfielder.

He recorded just two dribbles in the match on Tuesday which shows the excellent job that the Bristol City midfield did on Ejaria. He wasn't allowed his usual space to turn and run at the opposition and this caused Reading's attack to look very limp throughout.

Alongside that, Ejaria managed just one shot in the 90 and it was a quite staggering miss as he hit over from inside the six-yard box after Michael Morrison's header across goal.

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His match rating of 6.25 leaves a lot to be desired, and there needs to be an improvement in the player's end product as he looks to go on and have a successful career at the club when he signs permanently in the summer.

Reading need to make sure that youngsters such as Michael Olise can challenge Ejaria in the first-team to ensure that the player doesn't drop off in performances.

Bowen will be hoping that it is a one-off bad performance from loanee, but there's no reason why the player can't bounce back and put in a good shift at Cardiff on Friday. He has to make sure his confidence doesn't get effected.