Steve Clarke shuffling his side and making six changes to the team that won at promotion-chasing Ipswich Town for a 3-0 defeat at Huddersfield was always going to raise a few eyebrows, and the reaction is always intensified if a positive result doesn’t follow.

The Reading boss was open and honest in his post-match press conference, admitting that his hand was forced into making wholesale changes due to the gruelling nature of the Championship at this point of the season.

I agree to an extent with what Clarke said – but I was also surprised to see so much tinkering.

Three or four changes would have been understandable, but to switch the whole attack and midfield was perhaps a step too far, with the game having the feel of an FA Cup third round tie at a very quiet John Smith’s Stadium.

However, the bigger concern for me was that hardly any of the players who came into the side showed their worth or staked a claim for a starting spot against Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

Danny Guthrie is out of contract in the summer, but he looked like he’d rather have been anywhere else than on the pitch as Huddersfield ran Reading ragged.

In fairness to him, it was his first start since the FA Cup game at Huddersfield in early January and he was stuck out wide in an unfamiliar position. But Clarke would’ve been hoping for a response to that.

The Reading boss would’ve wanted his players to roll their sleeves up, work hard and prove a point, but there was none of that to see.

Reading failed to create anything of note and although Yakubu cut an isolated figure for large parts of the game, he failed to shine when the ball did come to him and he looked off the pace throughout.

Pavel Pogrebnyak is often criticised but I felt Reading missed his towering presence on Tuesday evening.

Jake Taylor worked hard but struggled to make any sort of impact on the game, while the tactical decision to play Garath McCleary through the middle didn’t have the desired effect.

Hope Akpan and Oliver Norwood battled well in midfield but were outrun and offered little protection.

If Millwall had won on Tuesday, then the gap between the relegation zone and Reading would’ve been back down to a worrying six points.

It remains nine points, but Reading must ensure they don’t get dragged into a battle at the bottom.

If the Royals take four points from Nottingham Forest and Bolton over the next five days then Clarke’s decision to heavily alter his team would have been vindicated.

However, the pressure to pick up points in those two games has now intensified and Reading must handle that over the next week, so that they can fully focus on the FA Cup when it comes to the huge game at Bradford.