READING have slumped to their lowest point in three years according to first-team coach Kevin Dillon. The Royals have lost four Premier League games out of five and let in an alarming 16 goals in that period. Their 7-4 thrashing at Portsmouth last weekend was also the first time the club had conceded seven in a match for 25 years.
The poor run has left Steve Coppell's side just one position above the drop zone and has piled the pressure on the play-ers to beat basement side Derby County at home this Sunday. But Dillon says the squad has already moved on from that Fratton Park horror-show and that confidence remains high going into a big weekend. Story continues ADVERTISEMENT "We're in a bit of a rut and we haven't experienced this for three years," admitted Dillon a former Pompey player in the 1980s.
"Portsmouth was extremely disappointing for everyone. They couldn't even analyse all the goals on Match of the Day there were so many. "I've never been involved in anything like that, nor has Steve or Wally Downes.
Neutrals must have loved it but I didn't. "If we pull everything apart we'll be here until Sunday. We've got to forget about it and put it down to a bad day at the office.
" And he stressed: "It's how we react that's important and we need to be ultra positive. We need to stamp out any negativity and move forward on the front foot. "We've got to get the players up again and, to be honest, they seem okay.
James Harper has been laughing as usual and they were all in training very early on Monday. "There's no point in dwelling on negatives, we've got a big game this weekend and we've got to get on with it." Sunday's game will be the last for two weeks as the Premier League breaks for important Euro 2008 qualifiers.
Dillon insisted: "The players are the most important thing in all of this and our preparation for Derby is more important than ever. "It's a big game for both clubs now and it would be nice to get a result going into a long international break. "If we don't it's going to be a long two weeks before the next match.
We need a positive performance and the result will come from that." Several players admitted they felt "embarrassed" leaving Fratton Park. But Coppell insisted there were plenty of positives to draw from the performance.
"It wasn't as though it was a massacring," stated the Reading manager. "The more I think about it the more positives I can find from that afternoon. "We scored four goals and missed a penalty.
I saw Sol Campbell afterwards and he was not a happy man. "The problem is we're scoring goals but conceding then. As we're improving in one area we're letting ourselves down in the other.
"We had a slow start to the season goals-wise and now we're getting a few. In our last three games we've scored eight which isn't bad at all. "But we've got to tighten up at the other end.
To conceded seven in one game isn't appealing. However, some of those were freaky goals that would-n't happen again. I'm not saying we played well but there were positive elements we can take out of it.
"Over the last week or so we got a win against Wigan then took part in two tremendous games for the impartial fan against Liverpool in the Carling Cup and them Portsmouth. "Maybe we've been a bit open in our commitment going forward to improve our goalscoring record. "We have to look at that but I would much prefer to be criticised for being too attacking rather than too defensive.
" As always, Coppell was keeping his team selection for Sunday a closely guarded secret. But he admitted he could make changes in a bid to revive his flagging side. "Jose Mourinho once said the Chelsea team picked itself because of the quality of their performances," he stated.
"It's the same with us, we're not getting good performances so you make changes. "Clean sheets are still the foundation of anything we do this season. If we don't get them, we're struggling.
"It's not just about the back four and the goalkeeper. It's about everybody defending together as a team and we haven't done that recently." Royals defeated Wigan 2-1 in their last home league game but Coppell warned fans not to expect an easy ride against rock-bottom Derby.
Reading have conceded 18 goals this season and only Derby have let in more with 21. But Coppell warned: "At the end of last season we played Watford at home. People took three points for granted and we came unstuck and lost 2-0.
"We don't want fans to feel that this, too, will be another easy three points for us. Remember, Derby will probably look at it and think it's a good opportunity for them to secure three points themselves. "They've played the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal recently and they'll see our fixture as a chance for them to win, particularly as we're fairly close to each other in the table.
"If we think it's going to be easy we'll get found out. We'll have to earn our corn and Derby are not going to roll over for us." But he also stressed: "I don't want to give this game much more importance than it deserves because it is magnified and everyone gets tense.
"But home games are critical for us this year, there's no doubt about that.
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