READING FC players have spent the week soul searching after their defeat at Brighton so they are ready to take on Wolves this weekend.

Royals suffered back-to-back losses to two of their promotion rivals last week after a 3-0 humbling at Brighton and 1-0 loss at Huddersfield Town.

It means Jaap Stam's men are now bidding to avoid a third straight Championship loss for the first time this season when they host Paul Lambert's relegation-threatened Wolves this Saturday (3pm ko).

And Stam revealed: “We talked about Brighton the day after because the players were too disappointed at the time.

“We talked about their thoughts on how we played, the problems that we had, the couple of chances Danny Williams and Roy Beerens had that could have made a difference.

“We also talked about what we can do for the next game against Wolves.

“You can lose games by playing very badly, or through individual mistakes, which basically happened against Huddersfield and Brighton.

“Brighton played well, but our defending wasn't good and we didn't get the simple things right.

“We will have to improve in those areas. You look at the top teams and the once chance they have they put it in the net.

“Sometimes when you don't play teams with the same quality of the top sides you get away with it. But again them you get punished.”

However, he also stressed: “The spirit in the squad is good. I'm not saying everybody is happy, but everyone wants to show they are a good team on Saturday.”

Fifth-placed Reading have now fallen 11 points behind the automatic promotion places following just one win in their last five Championship matches.

They remain seven points ahead of Fulham in seventh, though the Cottagers have one game in hand.

And Stam suggested his players are determined to secure a top-six finish as quickly as possible.

“If you love Reading you want them to win, but nobody wants Reading to win more than the players and staff,” added the Dutchman.

“There are a lot of points available, but we're only looking at Wolves at this point.

“They need the win and the points and they have a good squad. We really need to be very sharp on Saturday.

“But it's true that if we can pick up points now we won't have to go into the end of the season thinking we may need to win this game or that game.”

Reading have struggled to find the net recently and have failed to score in three of their last four league games.

But Stam insists there is no need to panic: “It's not a major concern,” he stressed. “It's a bit like deja vu because we were saying the exact same thing at the start of the season.

“Also, opposing teams drop in a bit against you and make it difficult. But when you do have opportunities to score you need to take them.”

Stam confirmed Deniss Rakels, Tiago Ilori Callum Harriott, Stephen Quinn, Sandro Weiser and Danzel Gravenberch remain sidelined with injury and that he will select from the same squad that faced Brighton a week ago.