Bristol City boss Gary Johnson admitted his side were second best in defeat at the Madejski Stadium.

Icelandic international Gylfi Sigurdsson scored twice inside the opening 22 minutes to seal victory for in-form Reading, who ran out comfortable winners.

And Johnson offered a brutally honest assessment when he declared: "We didn't do enough to be unlucky."

It was a disappointing performance from a City side which had beaten Crystal Palace 1-0 at Selhurst Park four days earlier to move back into the top half of the Championship table.

But the inconsistency which has become such a feature of a topsy-turvy season returned to haunt the Robins, who are now under pressure to return from struggling Plymouth with a result tomorrow night.

Reflecting on his team's limp display in Berkshire, Johnson admitted: "It's the manner of defeat which is disappointing, because we never really gave ourselves a chance to win the game.

"We know we are not going to win every game we play, but we have to be better in defeat and do more to make the fans think we have given it a go.

"I feel that I've let people down and so do the players. Of course, the lads are disappointed at losing, but they tried to play this tippy-tappy game inside their own half and it was very poor.

"We allowed them to take the ball off us, get in behind us, put their crosses in, get runners in and score too easily. Reading put us under almost constant pressure and we couldn't handle it.

"I've said my piece and they know how I feel. I've let them know in no uncertain terms that we were second best. We've come up against a very in-form team in Reading and we've not even come close to winning.

"They demoralised us like we demoralised Crystal Palace last Tuesday."

Disjointed in defence and unable to retain possession, City failed to cope with Sigurdsson, who was deployed in a withdrawn role behind lone striker Shane Long. At a loss as to how to stem the flow during the first half, City's players were openly at odds with one another and with manager Johnson and his assistant, Keith Millen.

"At the end of the day, our defenders have one striker to deal with," said Johnson. "Now because he works hard, it allows others to get in and, if we lose concentration, it can cause us problems.

"Sigurdsson likes to drop deep and he is very good at it, but we had the spare man and should have picked him up.

"I told the lads in the dressing room that they have to sort it out among themselves. You cannot keep being hit over the head with a stick – eventually you have to duck. If you don't then you will keep getting hit.

"We were a bit disappointed that, although we kept screaming and shouting to get what we felt we needed, it wasn't happening. It only happened after we had a break in play and a few strong words were exchanged, but the damage had been done by then."

Johnson replaced forwards Chris Iwelumo and Nicky Maynard with John Akinde and Danny Haynes at half-time and described the changes as tactical.

"We didn't get down Reading's throats at all in the first half and there didn't seem to be any hope of anyone getting close enough to big Chris to get in behind their defence," said the Londoner.

"Going up top was not working, so we had to change it and I thought we needed to have more runners to try and get in behind them and cause them a different problem.

"It nearly happened a few times but, apart from the one chance which fell to Jamal Campbell-Ryce, we didn't get in one-on-one with their keeper. We definitely have to do more as an attacking threat over the course of 90 minutes."

City have an opportunity to put things right and move back into the top half of the Championship table when they take on second-from-bottom Plymouth tomorrow. Johnson said: "It's up to me to lift them.

"If we can get a result there, we will have won two out of three difficult away games in the space of a week and people will see that as a good return and everybody will be feeling different.

"It's important we get a result down there, but we have to do a lot more than we did against Reading if we are to give ourselves a chance."

Left-back Liam Fontaine is doubtful for the trip to Devon after limping off with a thigh injury at the weekend. Jamie McAllister has now fully recovered from a calf strain and stands by to deputise if called upon.

A decision about Iwelumo's future at the club will be made today, City manager Johnson has asked Wolves boss Mick McCarthy if he can keep the Scottish international striker for a further month, but the decision will be left to the player himself.