Town boss Mick McCarthy bemoaned “Keystone Cops” defending after the Blues were defeated 5-1 at Reading.

“We contrived to give five goals away,” he said. “Well, I can’t say we gave them all away, they played well, but I thought we had plenty of chances in the game as well, certainly in the first half.

“And even at the start of the second half Brett Pitman gets a chance, and of all the people for it to drop to, he usually hits the target. And they scored within minutes after that.

“The third goal was really the one, that was car crash football, Keystone Cops, whatever you want to call it. It was a fabulous finish in the end, but it should never have got there.”

Regarding the mix-up between keeper Dean Gerken and Cole Skuse which led to the third goal, he said: “There’s a bit of discussion going on between him and Skusey. I’ll have a look at it.

“It doesn’t matter actually, who is to blame, I’m not going lay blame at anybody for any of them. That’s not the point. They’ve gone in and behind closed doors I’ll have a look and we’ll decide then.”

He added: “The goals that we’ve conceded, the first one is a poor clearance, they end up getting it in the box and our centre-halves generally deal with that. I have to say, Sa showed good movement and scored a good goal.

“I’ve talked about the third goal. The second goal, we don’t concede that normally, but it was another good goal by them, it is if it’s one of our players who scores it. But I’m chewing at our defending.

“And at the end of the game, I’ve played in games like that myself, the third’s gone in and then the fourth’s gone in and you’re all over the place and you’re just getting a chasing.

“You’re still running around but you’re not getting anywhere. It’s a sobering defeat that one.”

It’s been a long time since Town have conceded as many goals in a game, you have to go back to McCarthy’s first month in charge, November 2012, when the Blues lost 5-0 at Crystal Palace and 6-0 at Leicester.

As someone who takes pride in the way his team defends, he admits it’s not easy to take such a heavy loss.

“It hurts me a lot,” he said. “I’m sure it hurts all our fans and all our players. That’s the worst it’s been since the dark ages of Crystal Palace away and Leicester away almost three years ago. I thought we’d banished all that.

“I’ll take a bit of responsibility because I put a really attacking team out, maybe we were wide open, too open. So, yes, we had loads of chances, but so did they. I’ll have to look my own part I played in that as well.”

He added: “I’ve just been speaking to the lads for about 20 minutes and I’m not sure I said a great deal because I’m dumbstruck by that performance.”

The Blues are quickly back in action at Leeds on Tuesday, which McCarthy says is now a more difficult prospect: “They were always two tough away games and it’s made the next one even tougher still.”

Reading manager Steve Clarke said: “It was a good counter-attacking performance, but we did score the first goal as well, which opens the game up.

“It was a great cross from Nick Blackman and a terrific header from Orlando Sa and that gave us a platform to go one up.

“We defended really badly for the equaliser, which isn’t like us because we’ve been defending really well.

“I thought Ipswich in the first half put us under more pressure than any team has this season, they caused us problems at the back, which not many teams have done up to now.

“So, it was important for them to show better resolve and character in the second half and I think we did that.”

Photo: Action Images

BrettenhamBlue added 23:12 - Sep 11 Agree with you MM. It's not so much about our defending in this game though. It's about our defence this season. We were due a result like this.
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TimmyH added 23:18 - Sep 11 Yes Mick but for us to create chances in the 1st half too many players pushed forwards too often, result knife through butter on the break. Tactics away from home (well this game anyway) have gone from one extreme to the other from last season, personally I prefer the shut up shop away from home mentality and see if we can snatch something on the break (we certainly have the personnel) to accommodate this style. If you include the Preston game (which we sneaked) that's 3 poor/poorish performances running. Please please some consistency which I keep rambling on about.

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MarkFish added 23:19 - Sep 11 I hope they have a 9 hour journey home cos that was one seriously embarrassing balls up of Norwich proportions. Dire.
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blueherts added 23:25 - Sep 11 I remember those Palace and Leicester game well - we have a better squad but doesn't matter if you defend like we have last few games
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Godzilla added 23:26 - Sep 11 Keystone cops is being a bit kind tonight Mick, we were much slower in defence then that speeded up action,
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Tractorboy1985 added 23:28 - Sep 11 learnt a lot from 2nite.. Knudsen Douglas chambers skuse are not players of a promotion targeting side! What was the point in Douglas??
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svendust added 23:33 - Sep 11 Mick has to take the blame here. Four attacking players and an ageing midfield against one of the most dangerous sides in the league away? We were run ragged from start to finish. Last season we'd have kept it safe and played for the point. I don't think we're good enough to be that open away. Back to basics I think
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blueherts added 23:35 - Sep 11 Parr has to start with Bart. Sears play up top Hope Bru back soon along with Bish.
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stewartwonderland added 23:42 - Sep 11 Let's hope tonight's game was a one off, every team has one during the season, really poor performance from everyone and that includes the management.
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Leather24 added 23:52 - Sep 11 Poor team selection, Gerken should never have started, Douglas simply isnt good enough and starting our best striker out of position to accommodate Mcgoldrick and Pitman is a joke
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blueherts added 23:57 - Sep 11 Worry is that our defence looks rocky in most games at moment not just tonight. Teams are really gonna expose us. We just going to have to do a Keegan at Newcastle and make sure we score one more than the oppo!
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algarvefan added 00:04 - Sep 12 Shocking performance, way, way to open away from home coupled with a bad performance from just about everyone, it's no good slating individuals, football is a team game and we were no team tonight! Reading must have thought Christmas had come early. It has to be back to basics for the next game, another away slot, I always say win your home games and keep it tight and see what you get away. I think Mick must take the lions share of the blame tonight, poor team selection and tactics....there were tactics, right???

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rickw added 00:08 - Sep 12 Bart has to start, can't blame Gerken for most of them, but for a couple he could have done better. I think Mick's learnt he can't play so offensive away, so Sears won't play on the wing away from home again. Perhaps I'd bring Bru back into midfield and then a front 3 of Sears, Murphy and Fraser, which looks more solid in midfield and still dangerous on the counter
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raycrawfordswig added 00:18 - Sep 12 That's 8 points lost due to poor team and sub selection .Thats down to you mick .
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madmouse1959 added 00:44 - Sep 12 We were giving the ball away far too often. Too much of a panic to pass to a team mate....... The defending was comical. We totally lost our shape and composure. Awful game.
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jas0999 added 01:56 - Sep 12 Absolute rubbish MM! Gerken? What on earth were you thinking. Defence have no faith n him. Bart little better. Get a loan in and quick.
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mdtractorboy added 02:13 - Sep 12 I'm more than likely going to get bollock'd here but it's very early in the season and we got stuffed. Shake it off and get on with it. Everyone is so quick to start jumping up and down about things. If we play like this in April than by all means piss and moan as you like.
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muccletonjoe added 05:05 - Sep 12 By the looks of this we have not got good enough players up front to play 4 up there and expect them to win a game. The midfield behind them is non existent and this leaves a shaky defence looking even worse. Chambers and knudesen need replacing as does the goalkeeper and skuse. Douglas should have been left in Brentford reserves.
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battyblue added 05:44 - Sep 12 Mick your team selection and tactics were shocking yet again i don't know what you see in training but it doesn't happen on the pitch thanks for making us a laughing stock on world wide tv yet again anyone and everyone can see the defense is not up to the standard required to gain promotion and more likely bottom four but still you bury your head in the sand and do nothing. Point two Sears is our main threat so you play him out of position wide right crazy manager, Gerken is a clown of a keeper seen better on a sunday morning i am an x keeper and 65 now but i could still do a better job, championship football will continue for some time to come until we get the right manager in.In Mick we do not trust..............................

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Europablue added 06:37 - Sep 12 It's interesting that people are saying we should be more defensive and play for the point away. Before that people were saying we need to be more attacking. I think we could go a long way to improving the defence by putting Bart in goal (it would be interesting to compare the results in the team when he and Gerken are in the side), and the other glaringly obvious thing is playing a right back. We convinced ourselves we are better than we are again. It seems like McCarthy fell for it too.

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HackneyBlue added 06:48 - Sep 12 For me its still the complete joke of having a right back who is as much a right as me a film star,2 goals ,goals 3 and 4 were Chambers fault,fist pumping should not guarantee you a place in a team.
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essex57 added 06:54 - Sep 12 Well said europa most of the contributors on here dont seem to know what they want when we play defensive they want beautifull attacking football when they get it and we get tanked they want to grinde out a point how many games that we have lost on sky?
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Len_Brennan added 06:55 - Sep 12 The transfer decisions to sign Coke & Douglas foe central midfield cover, because they were free, looked a poor & inadequate one to many posters on here at the time. No surprise then that it has bitten us hard now. The transfer decisions to not bring in a new improvement of a Goalkeeper because Bart & Gerken are not good enough & will ultimately cost us points this season was identified by a lot of posters on here over the summer. No surprise then that it has bitten us hard now. The transfer decision to not bring in an genuine right back, for the umpteenth season, has been criticised by probably 80% of posters, with various references to how the whole defence is then weakened & how Chambers best position is centre half & Smith should be dropped or not etc. No surprise to see that this error has yet again bitten us hard. I like Mick a lot, I'm a fan & think he has done a terrific job; but I just can't defend him on the points above. I've never coached , I just love watching football, but those seemed like the easiest, most obvious, straightforward areas of the team that had to be addressed over the summer, so I can't understand his blind spot or perhaps blind faith.

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bedsitfc added 07:16 - Sep 12 Knudsen, Douglas have been poor in the last 2 games. I get worried every rime Douglas gets the ball as he is either dispossessed or finds the opponents with a pass shocking player. Knudsen needs more coaching. Bart most start but as someone said gerks didn't do much wrong apart from I think he was tethered to the goal line.
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Len_Brennan added 07:28 - Sep 12 And another thing, stop unnecessarily playing your players out of position Mick. The Chambers thing is well worn by now, but I'm getting concerned that trying to keep 4 quality strikers happy is causing Mick to crowbar them into areas where we might have better, more natural options. We have 4 wingers now, including. Oar & Toure, who should start ahead of 2 of the strikers if we are set up to play with wingers. Don't go messing with Murph & Freddie unless it's absolutely necessary to vary late on. I note that Stephen Kelly hasn't joined a new club yet, so could be given a contract as a free agent. Just turned 32, proven quality right back (Irish) good Premiership experience. Presumably he's been holding out for a good deal after rejected Reading's offer, but we are very much in need. Would be a much better mentor for Emmanuel to learn from than Chambers in that position. Jonny Parr could do the same for Knudsen & Kenlock on the other side.

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