Town boss Mick McCarthy was left bemoaning his side’s failure to score having conceded a goal which he felt was preventable as Reading left Portman Road with a 1-0 win.
"We didn’t score, did we?” he said. "Jamie Mackie’s was a good strike but I don’t think we should have conceded the goal that we did, whether he should have got it as easy when he got the shot off and whether we should have done better to stop it.
"But from his point of view it’s a good goal and we’ve taken the game to them consistently all the way through and not managed to score. One of those days, I’m afraid.”
He added: "It’s a tough one this, I can’t say our lads have played badly, they’ve had a good away performance, scored a goal, sat back, defended well and we’ve not been able to break them down.
"There are maybe some things we could have done better, maybe a final pass or a finish, but it just wasn’t the day.
"Of course it’s a disappointment if you don’t score and don’t make the keeper work. Maybe we should credit their back four or their whole team, they defended well.”
McCarthy believes Reading are a better team then their current position of 13th: "You put that team of players up and they should be competing for the play-off places, that’s where they should be.
"Having conceded a goal against them it was hard. It’s parasite football and it suits them even more so when we’ve conceded and they can sit back and catch us on the break, which they did a few times.
"I thought we created enough opportunities to have scored but today we didn’t manage it.”
He says most teams in the Championship are closely matched, as today’s results illustrated: "I keep reminding everyone at press conferences, there’s not that much between us.
"It’s a reoccurring theme. We watched Leeds beat Middlesbrough beforehand - that is the Championship.
"Middlesbrough had all the chances, all the play. I’m not saying that that was the case with us but we’ve had the majority of the play but not been able to score.”
He continued: "Do you think our 11 players on the pitch are that much better than Reading’s 11 players over their careers, over their seasons. No? There’s nothing between us at all.
"They’ve got the first goal and they’ve hung onto it. Our position and points tally might be a good deal better, but in terms of the quality of the players and strength in depth of the squad, there’s nothing in it, they’ve probably got a bigger squad than we have.
"They’ve got good players. We haven’t scored. I can’t sit here and give you a million answers for it today, that is just what’s happened. They scored a goal, they’ve defended, we couldn’t score.
"It’s always a sad day when you lose, even more so at home, but it’s what you ended up with. Not today.”
McCarthy says his side suffered no new injuries while he says striker David McGoldrick is progressing having said he hopes to have him back for the Norwich game next Sunday: "It’ll be nice to have him back.”
Reading manager Steve Clarke was pleased to see his side pick up their fourth win in their last five away games in all competitions with the other a draw at Millwall.
"We’re doing OK away from home,” he said. "The home form is a little bit of a puzzle, to be honest.
"You could see today that we’ve got good quality in the group. We’ve also got character in the group and if you don’t show your character and your strength when you come to a place like this, you lose. So for us it was a big three points and a pleasing three points.”