FRUSTRATED Reading FC manager Paul Clement has admitted Tuesday night's 2-1 Championship defeat at Birmingham City 'is the story of their season' so far.

Royals went into the game at St Andrew's on the back of a morale-boosting 3-1 home win against fellow strugglers Millwall on Saturday, but second-half goals from Gary Gardner and Lukasz Jutkiewicz meant they left the Midlands with nothing despite Yakou Meite's injury-time consolation.

Clement was left furious at the nature of the goals conceded by his team, and their inability to string a series of wins together – the last time Royals recorded back-to-back league wins was against Barnsley and Sunderland in December last year.

He commented: "There's frustration at the nature of the goals we conceded, frustration we had a good result last weekend and we haven't been able to back it up and that's the story of our season at the moment.

"When we make a forward step we then don't back it up.

"Back-to-back wins at this level make such a difference to your confidence, but we have another game coming up at Swansea. If we get a good result there we can say it's a decent week."

Reflecting on the Birmingham game, he confessed: "It's a disappointing result because I thought we were good enough to get something out of the game.

"I think we made some really costly errors which gifted them goals – the first a set-play and the second a counter-attack, which is exactly what we knew they were good at.

"Mistakes have cost us and you're not going to win a game at any level if you make mistakes of that magnitude.

"That is the overall disappointment."

Royals had chances at the other end to gain a share of the spoils, but ultimately only Meite's fine finish late on saw them find the back of the net.

And Clement reflected: "We created some good opportunities and could have scored more than the one we did, but we didn't so we have to look at the finishing side."

Defender Tyler Blackett reinforced his manager's view and hopes a succession of good performances can build momentum as Reading try and climb the table.

He added: "We should have got more from the game and taken our chances. It was fine margins, we created some chances, but didn't finish them and that's what the game was about."

He continued: "We've got a good squad here and the boys who are not starting come off the bench add quality.

"But we know we've got to put it together on a day-to-day basis and a game-to-game basis and it's not about one game, it's about every game.

"It's about building and focusing on our own jobs. We can't really look at other teams. We need to try and get on a run of games and get a winning streak going."

Reading travel to Swansea City on Saturday (3pm).