Royals boss Steve Coppell was applying some realism in reacting to his side's defeat at Chelsea.
"They are at the top of the table and we're in the bottom end. They are better than us!" he honestly remarked in his post-match comments.
"The players here are intimidating because they are very good players," he continued.
"At the moment it appears that they are grinding out results rather than producing calypso football, but so long as they're winning I don't think there'll be any complaints."
Victory extended Chelsea's ubeaten home run to 75 games and Petr Cech's goal went relatively untroubled despite Reading's best efforts.
"If you invest a couple of £100 million on players then you have the right to expect results," Coppell remarked.
"The fact that it has been such a strong run over such a lengthy period of time is impressive.
"But it is an investment. If you invest you are going to get a return."
Despite suffering a 1-0 defeat, the Royals boss was much happier with his side's second half display than their first.
"First 45: passive! Second 45: had a go!
"In the first half we weren't competitive. We were just responsive. We were just running alongside them.
"We weren't initiating anything ourselves and we didn't really look dangerous at all.
"Second half, we had a go which was more pleasing. I think the longer the game went on we became more of a factor."
Chelsea's home form will make the headlines, but Reading's away form and winless streak has also been noted by a number of journalists.
"How do you break it?" he asked. "Do you go in and say 'come on lads we haven't won for eight games, lets break this pattern.
"No - you just work hard. The next game is important. I can't do anything about what has gone by.
"My mentality is to prepare as well as I can for the next game. Can we win the next game? Of course we can.
"How do we go about it? It's my job to instill that skeleton of a framework in which the players can perform. But it's a tough league."
With Bolton on the horizon, Coppell refused to admit that the weekend's game was viewed with any more importance than that against Chelsea his side had just played.
"We don't cherry pick our games and say, 'we'll try harder with this one...and that one doesn't matter so much.'
"We do our best in every game. We go flat out every game to try to win.
"I wanted to go 4-4-2 here tonight rather than 4-5-1 because I wanted us to be an attacking threat rather than a passive force.
"We've got a third of the season to go. Every game is a must win. We don't prioritise.
"I don't see how any player can try harder or be more creative in one game rather than another.
"On the evidence on the 24 games our home form is critical, but if we picked up a few points away from home it would make life a lot easier."
A flu-ridden Dave Kitson's absence was glossed over by Coppell, saying "We were going to play the way we were anyway.
"I've got two fit centre forwards so I just made the decision to go with two that were fit rather than one that was struggling with flu."
And asked if Reading were likely to bring in anyone on the final day of the transfer window, Coppell sarcastically reported - "Oh yeah - three or four players before the deadline, no problem. The phone's been ringing all night!"
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