Goals from Alan Judge and James Tarkowski did the damage for Brentford as another game without scoring made it three goals in the last 820 minutes of league football at the Madejski Stadium for the Royals.

Reading have not hit the back of the net in their last four games at home and have taken just 10 points from their last 15 games.

Clarke accepts it is a difficult time at the moment and says he is struggling to find a way out of the bad run that they're in.

He said: “The team is in a difficult moment, we seem to be stuck in a bit of a rut and we’re running out of time this season to find a solution.

“But we’ve got the close season coming up and hopefully we can find a solution then.

“We conceded soft, soft goals. We allowed the cross to come in for the first goal far too easily, they wouldn’t have allowed us to cross like that.

“We were playing a really good counter attacking team which made it a difficult afternoon.

“The second one comes from a set play. They are a team who are capable of creating openings and we give them one from a set play as well. It’s disappointing” Clarke now turns his attention towards two games away from home to finish Reading's terrible league campaign.

The Royals travel to Rotherham on Tuesday, before visiting Derby next Saturday.

It's been a tough time at home for Reading lately and Clarke admits he is glad the final two league games are away from the Madejski Stadium.

“Fortunately we’ve no more home games,” he added. “We have two away games to finish, I think I’m pleased that they are both away.

“We look forward to trying to get another win on the board before the end of the season. They are two difficult away games but we look forward to them.”