Royals pay the penalty at the Valley

Reading went down 4-2 in an incident-packed game at the Valley on Saturday. Kevin Doyle missed the chance to cancel out Charlton's opener but saw his penalty slam against the bar. The home side went further ahead on 42 minutes but Sonko levelled with a powerful header on the stroke of half time. In the second half Stephen Hunt had more joy than his compatriot from the spot but needed two attempts to level things, however it was Charlton who came back stronger and finished us off with goals from Luke Varney and Hameur Bouazza.

So the harsh truth is that we failed our first real test in the Championship this season, and once again Doyle's form comes under scrutiny, especially with Noel Hunt looking lively and hitting the bar when he joined the action. It would be far too easy to blame one person, but who knows how the game might have panned out had we got level at 1-1? As it was we were always chasing the game. Perhaps a bigger concern is the conceding of four after two games of pretty solid defending. Steve Coppell has this at the forefront of his mind too:

"Last week people were complimenting us for our clean sheets - now it's the opposite end of the spectrum."

Maybe we need to find that left back sooner rather than later Steve? We have to bounce back strongly against Palace next week in front of the faithful, especially as we already find ourselves five points behind pacesetters Bongo FC.