Portsmouth boss John Mousinho praised Reading for their 'excellent' first-half display in a heavy 4-1 defeat at Fratton Park.

The Royals dominated proceedings against the league leaders for the first 35 minutes, falling behind before the break before going on to ship four on the south coast.

Charlie Savage netted a consolation in the final few minutes, with a goal well-deserved for their efforts.

Speaking from the comfort of top spot in League One, with a nine-point buffer over third-place Bolton Wanderers, Mousinho admitted that his team needed to adapt their approach to get on top of Ruben Selles' Royals.

I’m really pleased with the win but disappointed that we conceded so late," the former Oxford United and Burton Albion defender commented. "It’s a difficult game to summarise because, for large parts of the first half, I thought Reading were excellent and caused us quite a few problems.

"We were probably a bit fortunate I think to not concede early on, they had a couple of really good chances. Once we got to grips with the game, particularly the way we were pressing, we changed a couple of things after half an hour, and we stepped on ourselves and put it together well."

Talking about the Royals later on in the interview, Mousinho added: "I think Reading are a good side. What I said before the game wouldn’t change, I think they’re a really good side who have overcome quite a lot of adversity off the pitch and they’ve got some really good players there who we saw on display today."