The Royals had their chances at Swansea City this afternoon but failing to convert those chances rendered a much-improved second half performance futile at the Liberty Stadium.
"We didn’t do that well in the first half and Swansea played really well - we found it difficult to pin them down," manager Paul Clement began his assessment.
"I'm not saying we deserved to lead, but we should have been 1-0 up; I’ve seen it back and it wasn’t offside.
"When it’s flicked on by John O’Shea, as a minimum Martin Olsson, who went short to the corner, is playing Sam Baldock on before he put it in.
"It’s the wrong decision - and a goal can give you that confidence to go on and play better.
"I got the message over to the players that we can’t feel sorry for ourselves…telling them to go out and try to play better in the second half. And we did play better after the break.
"But at half-time we needed to change something because we weren’t playing well enough.
"In the second half we played really well for long periods and created really good chances, and deserved to get back into the game.
"We had 14 chances, which away from home is a good tally, but then when we’re pushing with more players and with the fatigue setting in, you get hit on the counter and it ends up 2-0. It’s hard for us to get back into it at that point.
"I was pleased with the performance in the second half. I wasn’t in the first, and the players weren’t either. I had to do something to try and help them and we were much better in the second half.
"I thought we made a good game of it. The spirit was good and tactically we looked good. But we just couldn’t get that goal that might have given us the belief to go on to win the game.
"I’m not happy, the players aren't happy and the fans aren’t happy with the results and our position in the league. No-one is more disappointed than me.
"So we’ve got to try and get results and we're going to continue to roll our sleeves up and fight."