Town boss Mick McCarthy bemoaned “Keystone Cops” defending after the Blues were defeated 5-1 at Reading.

“We contrived to give five goals away,” he said. “Well, I can’t say we gave them all away, they played well, but I thought we had plenty of chances in the game as well, certainly in the first half.

“And even at the start of the second half Brett Pitman gets a chance, and of all the people for it to drop to, he usually hits the target. And they scored within minutes after that.

“The third goal was really the one, that was car crash football, Keystone Cops, whatever you want to call it. It was a fabulous finish in the end, but it should never have got there.”

Regarding the mix-up between keeper Dean Gerken and Cole Skuse which led to the third goal, he said: “There’s a bit of discussion going on between him and Skusey. I’ll have a look at it.

“It doesn’t matter actually, who is to blame, I’m not going lay blame at anybody for any of them. That’s not the point. They’ve gone in and behind closed doors I’ll have a look and we’ll decide then.”

He added: “The goals that we’ve conceded, the first one is a poor clearance, they end up getting it in the box and our centre-halves generally deal with that. I have to say, Sa showed good movement and scored a good goal.

“I’ve talked about the third goal. The second goal, we don’t concede that normally, but it was another good goal by them, it is if it’s one of our players who scores it. But I’m chewing at our defending.

“And at the end of the game, I’ve played in games like that myself, the third’s gone in and then the fourth’s gone in and you’re all over the place and you’re just getting a chasing.

“You’re still running around but you’re not getting anywhere. It’s a sobering defeat that one.”

It’s been a long time since Town have conceded as many goals in a game, you have to go back to McCarthy’s first month in charge, November 2012, when the Blues lost 5-0 at Crystal Palace and 6-0 at Leicester.

As someone who takes pride in the way his team defends, he admits it’s not easy to take such a heavy loss.

“It hurts me a lot,” he said. “I’m sure it hurts all our fans and all our players. That’s the worst it’s been since the dark ages of Crystal Palace away and Leicester away almost three years ago. I thought we’d banished all that.

“I’ll take a bit of responsibility because I put a really attacking team out, maybe we were wide open, too open. So, yes, we had loads of chances, but so did they. I’ll have to look my own part I played in that as well.”

He added: “I’ve just been speaking to the lads for about 20 minutes and I’m not sure I said a great deal because I’m dumbstruck by that performance.”

The Blues are quickly back in action at Leeds on Tuesday, which McCarthy says is now a more difficult prospect: “They were always two tough away games and it’s made the next one even tougher still.”

Reading manager Steve Clarke said: “It was a good counter-attacking performance, but we did score the first goal as well, which opens the game up.

“It was a great cross from Nick Blackman and a terrific header from Orlando Sa and that gave us a platform to go one up.

“We defended really badly for the equaliser, which isn’t like us because we’ve been defending really well.

“I thought Ipswich in the first half put us under more pressure than any team has this season, they caused us problems at the back, which not many teams have done up to now.

“So, it was important for them to show better resolve and character in the second half and I think we did that.”

Photo: Action Images

KernewekBlue added 13:34 - Sep 12 I don't post my opinions here very often because I live far down in the South West and am unable to get to the vast majority of games. I prefer to trust the opinions of the regular match-goers and posters to this site who watch the lads on a weekly basis. I do, however, have opinions and having watched every Town game broadcast on Sky Sports for the last several years as well as managing to travel to watch the odd match, I can only agree with a lot of what is being said by most contributors here. Last night's result was always going to happen, it was just a case of when! Our defence, if that's what you can call it, is substandard. I closed my eyes whenever the ball ventured anywhere near our box last evening. Chambers is definitely not a right back, Tommy's defending, for the most part, is shocking, Berra seems, quite rightly, to have no faith in his fellow backline and Knudsen hasn't yet gained enough experience of the Championship to be an effective leftback. Gerken doesn't command his six yard box let alone the rest of his area, as was witnessed last night. He doesn't seem to have faith in the back four and they don't seem to have any in him... a real recipe for catastrophe. As for the midfield... did we have one? Freddie and Fraser looked willing on the wings but with Skuse and Douglas (why????) in the middle, whenever the ball was given away cheaply, which happened on far too many occasions, Reading had a wealth of opportunity to get straight at our shaky, feckless back four, which they did with pace and aplomb. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. DMc and Pittman did ok but gave away or lost the ball at too many key moments through bad decision making and poor passing. Pitman was a little unlucky to see the ball rebound off the crossbar from a decent headed attempt amd DMc showed flashes of what he can do but not often enough to trouble a decent looking Reading side, who were well organised (apart from the goal) and who hit hard on the break. Personally, I thought Freddie was our stand-out player with DMc second. Like others here, I await the return of Murph to full match fitness, Bru and Bishop. The next time Sky Sports come knocking, turn off the lights and pretend we're not at home!

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Lightningboy added 14:05 - Sep 12 Square pegs into square holes Mick - that's all it takes....oh,and a decent goalkeeper would help.
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Viking1759 added 16:52 - Sep 12 Making me think about going to Leeds now! But I know I will.
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Seasider added 18:18 - Sep 12 Well looks like its park the bus again Mick,and take a point before getting on it time! Don't play Kevin Bru in under 21's on Monday,play him at Elland Rd Tuesday. Coke and Douglas not first team standard and Knudsen not worth £350k on yesterdays showing;so give Malarczyk Parr and Toure a chance. Bart for Gerken who shouldn't even be on bench. Oh and rethink about having sufficient players to not need any loans,not on yesterdays showing matey. Pity JW appears to have been snapped up If you pay peanuts you get monkeys or so appeared from yesterdays abysmal showing.

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essex57 added 19:01 - Sep 13 Why is it when we have a bad game the name sick note JW reappears!!!!
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Cloddyseedbed added 21:18 - Sep 13 Defending this season like last season is just not good enough. Players that weren't good enough in the positions they were picked for last season aren't suddenly going to improve over the summer unfortunately. Neither of our goalkeepers are good enough, however Bart is just the better of the 2. New good goalkeeper needed. Chambers as I and everybody who supports ITFC know is not a bl**dy full back. Never has been and never will be. More worryingly when he played in the middle last home game he seemed to not be able to fill in there either. Maybe he has been played out of position too long. Good right fullback needed and has been needed since the departure of Wright. Don't think Parr is reliable enough either I'm afraid. Smith always makes mistakes but I feel sorry for him as he too is out of position, that's 2 out of the back 4. Berra is it just me who thinks he's all arms and clumsy. Certainly off the pace like most of the team on Friday. Central midfield, can't play Hyham and Skuse together we used to say, well the same is also true about Douglas and Skuse. 2 slow old war horses in central midfield against young, tricky speedy players who run at you. We desperately need a fit Bishop/Bru back in there. I though with the addition of good wingers, Fraser and Niles and now Orr we could play players in their rightful positions and had cover in those positions but we seem to persist with playing players out of position just to fit favourites in the team Mick. Please start with the strongest players in each position, if that means players have to miss out, even if one of them happens to be the captain, their chance soon comes around again, especially with the games coming so fast in the next few weeks. If the defence can't be sorted we'll have to resort to bricking up the goal !

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babyblueboy added 08:38 - Sep 14 "EMBARRESING SHAMBLES" Promotion candidates !!!!!!!!!!! Too many has been free transfers Too many loanees Too many league 1 standard players Too many players played in wrong position Too many years waiting to get to the prmier league whilst are neigbours over the border continue to thrive and take the P***. Please sort it out we do not want a season of midtable survival, I know you may say this is a one of game but sadly we have leaked 8 goals in Two games and I fear more this week at dirty Leeds unless somthing changes. "Still loyal as ever for last 30 years but patients being tested with apparently the clubs lack ambition and willingness to spend serious money" Come Jan window GoalKeeper Commanding centre back Creative midfielder

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