Reading FC stand-in captain Josh Laurent has called on his team to put things right after their "heartbreaking" last-gasp defeat to Middlesbrough on Saturday.

Andy Carroll has given the Royals a second half lead and just when it seemed they might cling on for a crucial victory, Matt Crooks struck twice in the final ten minutes to snatch all three points for the hosts.

A hugely dedicated group of a few hundred Reading supporters made the 500-mile round-trip journey and Laurent couldn't hide his disappointment at not being able to get over the line for them.

“I can’t explain how much respect and love we have for the fans for that support today,” Laurent said. “It has been a terrible week for them – and they have travelled all this way. And there are other people that haven’t been able to travel too, but have still supported us.

“So we can’t show enough respect and love to them for that. We need to do better for them. We can’t come all this way and put in a performance for 85 minutes then let people down… we want to start turning it around."

Reading Chronicle: Reading fans at Middlesbrough. Image by: JasonPIXReading fans at Middlesbrough. Image by: JasonPIX

Laurent, who has been leading the Reading team out in recent weeks with Andy Yiadom at the Africa Cup of Natioans and Liam Moore sidelined through inury, may now take the armband for the rest of the campaign with the announcement that Moore will no longer have the honour.

Sitting just three points clear of the relegation zone, Laurent knows he and his teammates have to start turning their leads into concrete victories.

“It’s heartbreaking. But we need to fix it and start that soon, together.

“For 85 minutes, we put in a performance that I’m sure anyone who saw it would be proud of. We did the right things – shut them down in the first half, stayed tight as a team and tried to defend, and in the second half we grew in confidence and got ourselves into the game.

“We did well for 80, 85 minutes. But we can’t keep throwing away leads like this. It needs to turn, and turn quickly. We’ve dropped too many points from winning positions.

“We have the characters and the ability to do it. So it is frustrating and I know it’s frustrating for everyone else.”

“We’ve had some big players missing, and they’re coming back,” Laurent continued. “Andy Rinomhota has come in to start – he wasn’t supposed to play the whole game, but he did. That’s the type of character and spirit that we need in the whole group, and having him back will help that spread. He made a difference today.

“Same thing with Lucas Joao. He’s a big character in the dressing room and we all know his quality. So we need our players to come back, and more importantly we need to stay fit and take care of ourselves.”