After seeing his team beat Doncaster 2-1, Steve Coppell was quietly pleased his side had ground out an important win, but admitted that "we made it difficult for ourselves."
Andre Bikey scored in the first half, but we missed some great chances and allowed Rovers to level, only for Kevin Doyle to head home James Harper's free kick and win it.
"Before the game the object is to get three points. In an ideal world you feel as though you've deserved them and you play well," the Royals boss explained.
"Tonight I felt that we had the opportuinities to deserve three points, but I don't feel we played fluently well."
"I think in the second half we created problems for ourselves with some poor play, bordering on the naive.
World TV: Coppell's Donny verdict
Report: Reading 2-1 Doncaster
"The game really was tight throughout and credit to Doncaster for that - they made it very, very tough for us.
"Very, very dilligent, defensively they kept disciplined. And considering the changes they've had recently it was a real hard fought match for us."
Both the Royals' goals came from well-executed set pieces - a fruitful source so far this season.
"You look at the goals we scored and you can say they both came from set pieces again - but I thought we had more than enough chances from open play too.
"We work on set pieces - the delivery and the timing of runs - quite a lot, but teams want to score goals in open play and we didn't get into that kind of rhythm today.
"We have to make sure we continue to be productive from our set pieces, but all football teams like to score goals from open play - it's important."
"We had golden opportunities and didn't finish them off," Coppell continued, referring to Kevin Doyle's one-on-one and Noel Hunt's skied left-footed effort in the second half.
"I often say that so long as we're creating chances you can't do any more - but tonight we could have been that little bit more precise.
"We have to be more ruthless, that bit more destructive in front of goal."
"In creation tonight I felt we dallied too long on the ball, instead of passing and moving.
"Defensively we were lax, although their goal came from the free kick that wasn't.
"Stephen Hunt's challenge from which they won the corner, looked to be the perfect challenge.
"It was the kind of challenge you actually show young kids and say 'this is how you tackle properly'.
"There were times when we could have cleared the ball from the danger zone and we tried to play too much.
"We were a little bit arrogant I suppose. Too relaxed. And we put ourselves under pressure."
He refuted suggestions that a slender victory at home against one of the lower-placed sides in the division would act as a reality check.
"We don't think we needed a reality check. We don't think we just turn up here and get a result.
"We stressed tonight that it was a game in which we had to earn a victory. And I think we did. We were just a few degrees under tonight."
