Striker Kevin Doyle says the entire team were half a yard off the pace in Saturday's 2-0 defeat away to Ipswich Town.

The Royals never had a sustained period of pressure on the Ipswich goal, and they failed to make the most of the chances that did come their way; Jimmy Kebe, Alex Pearce and Doyle all given opportunities they could have done better with inside the final third.

Doyle said, "All eleven were half a yard off the pace. We had chances in the first 20 minutes, things coming across the box, but once they scored we went out of the game."

Kevin was asked how much of the performance can be put down to our players' exertions on international duty and he said, "We had a lot of lads away, some played one game and Hunty & I were the only ones who played in two. You can't put it all down to that though."

Doyle, 25 this Thursday, was away in Germany and then Montenegro, and had an arduous couple of weeks. "I came straight from Montenegro to Ipswich, via Dublin. I've been in a hotel for 14 nights straight and I'm looking forward to going home and my own bed."

Our away form had been a source of disappointment, and Kevin is hoping to get points on the board as soon as possible, starting against Sheff Wed this week.

"The away form will only be a concern if it keeps going. We got a draw at Forest first, and then Ipswich was similar to how we played at Charlton.

"We need to get this out of the system and we've got a game on Tuesday to get up and running again."