LIAM MOORE encouraged his teammates to have a “look in the mirror” following their 2-1 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday which left them bottom of the Championship table after six games.
The Royals captain headed home from a corner, midway through the second half to reduce a two-goal deficit, after goals from Adam Reach and Lucas Joao had put the visitors in control at the Madejski.
Liam Kelly and Marc McNulty were both unable to convert Reading’s best chances for an equaliser, to ensure that Paul Clement’s side headed into the international break without a league win.
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“There’s no point standing here and saying next time we need to do this and that,” said Royals stand-in skipper Moore.
“We’re not doing well enough as a team, as individuals, myself included, it’s every single player. We need to do more.
“We’ve lost the game from two sloppy chances, they’ve put them away, they’ve put men behind the ball and then we’ve been clueless with ideas on how to break them down.
“We can’t sulk, there’s no point in feeling sorry for ourselves. We just need to keep working hard.”
Owls took the lead after 11 minutes, as Matt Penney brought the ball down the left before squaring it to Reach, who drove the ball low, past Mannone and into the Reading net.
Reading’s best chance of the half fell to Modou Barrow, who was put through one-on-one with the goalkeeper by Baldock, but his effort was blocked out by Dawson for a corner.
The task got even tougher for Royals as they conceded a second goal, just 14 seconds after the restart. Barry Bannan linked up with Reach who found Joao in space on the edge of the box, and the Portuguese forward curled a smart finish into the bottom right corner.
Royals got themselves back in the game on 65 minutes as Moore rose well to guide Leandro Bacuna’s corner into the net, but Wednesday held on for the three points.
“After the game I didn’t say much,” added Moore.
“I try and think about what I say. I don’t want to say things for the sake of saying it.
“Words were said after the game about looking in the mirror and just because I’ve got the armband or because someone is more senior it doesn’t mean it’s not relevant to them.
“We are all behind this manager and we’re losing games. We’ve got to look in the mirror. It’s easy to come here and say we nearly did this and that but we’ve lost the game and we’ve lost a lot of games recently.
“We need to do more. There’s no point people looking at the manager, look at the individuals and the players, myself included, everybody.
“Our old manager was let down by that and at the current time, the manager in place is being let down by that. We have to do more as individuals. There’s no point passing the buck.”
Reading now have a two-week break before travelling to face Preston North End on September 15.
