Royals boss reflects on tonight's clash with Coventry City...
Royals boss Veljko Paunovic was pleased with his side's effort and a lot of what he saw in the performance at St Andrew's this evening. But naturally he was disappointed to suffer defeat for the first time as Reading manager.
"Today it hurts. It is difficult when you lose," he said. "But we will recover.
"We have a very good spirit within the players and the staff and we want to keep fostering that.
"So we are not going to let anyone get down after tonight's defeat - because small defeats lead to big victories.
"And our guys gave everything. All the non-negotiables were there to see - never give up, fight until the end, always do your best. So attitude-wise I think we had a very good game.
"Technically, we did very well with the ball. And defensively we did well too - except for defending the shots from outside of the box. They cost us.
"But we pushed until the end for an equaliser. That is the mentality we want in our team.
"When we win we say we can improve. And when we lose you have to acknowledge you can improve too. There are no excuses, only possibilities to keep learning and growing as a team...and improving.
"Nobody is happy when you lose. But I want to tell out fans that we will recover and get back to the winning streak as soon as possible. And hopefully that will be the next game."
The Royals face Preston at home on Wednesday night next...before Stoke City come to Madejski Stadium on Saturday. Two home games for the Royals on the horizon.
"We have a very busy stretch now and with two games at home we want to immediately erase what is behind us and focus on the next game. For that, it is going to be important to recover our bodies and our minds.
"Tonight, we lost. But we had a pretty good game. We had possession, we created opportunities and we scored two goals on the road - which is never easy.
"So there are some things we can be satisfied with and others we can improve on and do better."