LIAM Moore bemoaned Queens Park Rangers' Alex Smithies' stunning save to deny Reading FC an equaliser as Royals crumbled to a 2-0 defeat at Loftus Road on Saturday.

Jon Dadi Bodvarsson forced a sensational save out of the Rs' stopper while Royals were just a single goal behind.

Just seconds later, Tiago Ilori was dismissed for a last-man foul inside the box after Rangers broke down the other end of the pitch.

Connor Washington stepped up to the spot and doubled both Rangers' lead and his personally tally for the afternoon, but Moore insisted the result could have been different if Bodvarsson had taken his chance.

"That's the Championship summed up in seconds," stated Moore.

"Their keeper has pulled off a great save then they go down the other end and we are 2-0 down and out of the game.

"It happens, we need to be more competitive sometimes and a bit stronger with our tackling, especially away from home.

"When we do get these chances we need to take them and we need to tighten up at the other end as well.

"I think QPR did a job on us today (Saturday).

"We wanted to try and build momentum straight away.

"They knew what they needed to do, they wanted to be on the front-foot to stop us from playing our game.

"We will go through it in more detail but we need to handle it and look forward."

Royals went into the game with an injury plagued squad with the likes of Yann Kermorgant, Garath McCleary, Joey van den Berg, Roy Beerens and Jordon Obita all missing.

In fact, boss Jaap Stam only named six substitutes, including youngsters Sam Smith, Omar Richards and Andy Rinomhota.

Stam was dealt a further blow when Bodvarsson was forced to withdraw from Saturday's fixture with a knee injury.

Reading Chronicle:

Jon Dadi Bodvarsson suffered a knee injury against Queens Park Rangers.

But Moore stressed injuries are not an excuse to drop points.

"Injuries are never great but it's part of football," he declared.

"I think we were quite lucky with injuries last year.

"Sometimes it can go the opposite way but we just need to kick on without any excuses and get some points on the board."

The 24-year-old echoed Stam's cries for the club's owners to strengthen the squad as Royals try to better last season's success.

Moore continued: "We only had 17 in the matchday squad.

"That's probably something to address, if we had more depth then we might have been able to fill the bench.

"There is more than enough ability in the players that are here now and we need to step-up and take responsibility."