DANNY Williams is confident Reading FC can put their promotion campaign back on track when they visit rivals Brighton & Hove Albion this Saturday (5.30pm ko, live Sky Sports).

Royals lost for the first time in seven Championship matches after a controversial 1-0 defeat at third-placed Huddersfield Town on Tuesday night.

It leaves Jaap Stam’s men fourth in the table and four points behind David Wagner’s in-form Terriers having played an extra game.

It also leaves Reading’s automatic promotion hopes hanging by a thread as they are now eight points adrift of second-placed Brighton, who also have a game in hand.

It means realistically Royals must win at the Amex Stadium in Saturday’s televised clash if they are to stand any chance of finishing in the top two.

Williams stated: “These games are tight, sometimes it goes your way, sometimes it doesn’t.

“Congratulations to Huddersfield, they have quality like us and sometimes you have to hold your hands up and say that you came up against a good team.

“I think a draw would have been a fair result. Both teams played very well and put a lot of effort into the game.

“Of course some legs were getting a bit tired towards the end but that’s normal with the amount of games you play in a season. It went their way, so congratulations to them.

“It’s a difficult one to take but we’ve shown throughout the season that the character of our team is amazing.

“We’ve bounced back from defeats before. Now we have to do that against Brighton.”

This weekend’s clash on the south coast starts a make-or-break run for the Royals that also includes promotion six-pointers against Newcastle United, Sheffield Wednesday, Leeds United and Norwich City.

It will be the third time Reading have faced Chris Hughton’s Seagulls this season following August’s 2-2 draw at Madejski Stadium and the 2-1 EFL Cup victory at Amex Stadium in September.

USA international Williams added: “Losing on Tuesday was a bit frustrating, but I’m sure the team will bounce back.

“We have quality and we’ve won some tight games before.

“We came from two behind against Bristol City and came back to get the win against Brentford just last week.

“We’ll analyse the Huddersfield game and then hopefully we can turn it around against Brighton.”

But the 27-year-old midfielder also suggested some key decisions went against Royals during the Terriers' clash.

Reading keeper Ali Al-Habsi saved a Rajiv van La Parra penalty in the first-half but were denied one of their own after the break when Terriers keeper Danny Ward appeared to trip Lewis Grabban.

But referee Tony Harrington waved away Reading's appeals and Huddersfield went on to snatch the win thanks to a controversial late Philip Billing strike which was hotly contested by Stam.

Williams argued: “Ali made an unbelievable save from their penalty and after that we had three or four really good chances which we couldn’t convert.

“In the second half, I think we should have been awarded a penalty, but the ref got a bit intimidated by the crowd.

“If the first one was a penalty for them, then that was a penalty for us.

“It shows that people can make a decision based on what they hear from the crowd.

“That’s how it is, we’ve had a lot of penalties this season, but it is very frustrating in an important game like it was.

“It can be an example of how the crowd can influence the people who make the decisions. Hopefully we can have that at home at Madejski Stadium.”

Stam has been boosted by the return to fitness of Joey van den Berg, Stephen Quinn, Deniss Rakels and skipper Paul McShane in the past week, though Tiago Ilori and Callum Harriott remain sidelined.