TONY Mowbray felt his Blackburn Rovers side didn’t defend their box well enough as they slipped to a second consecutive defeat.

Mowbray felt Rovers didn’t recover quickly enough from losing Charlie Mulgrew to injury inside the opening 10 minutes as Yann Kermorgant scored twice from headers inside the area as Reading moved in to a 2-0 advantage inside the opening half an hour.

Rovers, who also lost Darragh Lenihan to injury, made a double change and improved after the break, getting a goal back 13 minutes from time when Elliott Bennett thumped home an effort from the edge of the box.

But it was game over within a minute as Garath McCleary fired home from the edge of the box to restore Reading’s two goal advantage.

And Mowbray said: “They are a good football team, their ball retention is really good and we can with the game-plan to press them really high.

“They played through it a little bit, but second half they didn’t play through it and most of the game was played in their half.

“We gambled a bit in the second half and got a goal and gave them one back really which was the nature of the way we were going to play.

“We went man for man at the back and pushed high up the pitch.

“Second half we were good, first half I thought we didn’t defend our box well enough.

“We had to try and adjust to losing our main centre half, and didn’t adjust well enough.

“They didn’t score any great goals, we have to defend crosses in to our box better than we did.  Whether Mulgrew going off was part of the reason it probably was.

“It’s football, we have to take it on the chin and move on to the next one.”

Rovers made a double change at the break, sending on Lucas Joao and Marvin Emnes in a switch to three at the back, as they looked to get a foothold in the game.

And Mowbray added: “We needed to change something, you can’t keep doing the same thing when you’re losing 2-0.

“I think it gave them enough problems, the first 25 of the second half we could have scored more than one, we were wasteful when we got to the edge of their box.

“We scored, and then it was frustrating that we allowed them to score again, probably because we were being too cavalier and thinking about getting an equaliser, but at 3-1 the game was over.

“It would have been an interesting final few minutes but my final thought is that they are a good team and we wish them well.

On the injuries to Mulgrew and Lenihan, he said: “The doctor did whisper that Mulgrew needs an x-ray tomorrow on his ankle.

“Lenihan I just think rolled his ankle, hopefully it won’t be too bad, but it could potentially be his ligaments.”