ORLANDO Sa warned his Reading FC teammates they cannot afford a repeat of their alarming second-half display at Fulham.

Sa put Reading 2-0 up at Craven Cottage early in the second half after Lucas Piazon had given the visitors the lead.

But three Fulham goals in a decisive six-minute period turned the game on its head before a fourth goal sealed Royals' fate.

Striker Sa declared: “It was a shock because we were winning 2-0 and creating chances, but nobody was expecting Fulham to score three goals in five or six minutes.

“We need to learn from the second half for the future. A lot of games in this league will be like that – at 2-0 we will have to focus on defending better and holding together.

“This can’t happen at 2-0 and we must improve for the next game.”

The defeat was a bitter pill for Reading to swallow and especially for Sa, who netted his fifth goal for Reading on Saturday against his former club, and his first at Craven Cottage.

The 27-year-old striker admitted: “It is always good to score against Fulham or any other team. But I prefer it when I don’t score and the team wins the game.

“All of my teammates were disappointed with the result. We know that we have a good team and that we can do much better than we did.

“We know the quality that we have in this team. We played a few really good games before against strong teams, and we went to Fulham to win the three points.

“We created chances for this and my teammates are disappointed because we lost the game.”

Sa is now seeking a reaction for Reading's next Championship fixture against leaders Brighton & Hove Albion at Madejski Stadium this Saturday (3pm ko).

“In my opinion, we want the next game to come early to prove to our fans that the second half was not realistic,” he added.

“We can do much better against Brighton – we need to improve our game, play like a team and defend and attack together.”