Clayton Donaldson's 83rd minute header was enough to give Birmingham all three points and condemn Reading to a ninth home loss of the season.

Clarke refused to accept the notion that his side had suffered from a Wembley hangover but accepted it was the same old story for his side after paying the price for not taking their chances.

“It was a good performance but no points to show for it,” he said. “I've said that a few times this season.

“There was no Wembley hangover. It was total domination for 80 minutes of the game. If you watched that game you wouldn't say there's any hangover whatsoever. I thought we were good.

“Birmingham came here for a point and stole all three but it's a familiar tale."

He continued: “I thought we did enough but you have to score if you're on top and we were on top for almost the whole game.

“There was only one team trying to win the game and that was us.”

Despite the defeat, Clarke insisted there was some positives to take and praised the performance of the youngsters involved.

“Jake Cooper was excellent tonight,” he said. “Jack Stacey also looked good when he came on and he looks a bright prospect.

“Jem Karacan got 90 minutes for the first time since his injury which is also good so we can take some small positives but overall it's another defeat.”