Blackburn head coach Jon Dahl Tomasson bemoaned his side’s lack of intensity as the Championship leaders suffered a surprise 3-0 defeat at Reading.
Rovers started sluggishly, with Reading deservedly going ahead in the 14th minute through a header from defender Tom McIntyre.
Blackburn barely improved after the interval and Reading secured victory with further goals from Junior Hoilett and substitute Lucas Joao.
Rovers’ 100 per cent start to the season – in four matches in the league and cup – came to an abrupt halt.
Tomasson, appointed at Ewood Park in June, said: “It was a disappointing night. We’ve been excellent so far but, today, it was not a good performance.
“We didn’t play with our normal intensity and we didn’t make the right choices on the ball and in the duels. In that way, it was not positive at all.
“I hate losing, the players hate losing, our fans hate losing. I feel sorry for all the fans, more than a thousand, who took the journey down here.
“They kept supporting us but the performance was not good. We have made a lot of good steps forward this season but today was a step backwards.
“We now need to stick together and get a good reaction on Saturday (away to Sheffield United).
“You can learn from winning games and you learn from losing games. We have made some great steps in the past couple of months but today was not great. We need to deal with that and we need to do it better.”
Reading manager Paul Ince was pleased at his side’s reaction to the 4-0 defeat at Rotherham last Saturday.
“Listen, let’s not get carried away,” he said.
“Yes, the performance was very good, but you’re not going to play like that every week.
“As a manager, you hope that you do, but it’s not always the case. It doesn’t work like that.
“I’m just pleased that we bounced back from Rotherham, which was obviously very disappointing.
“I said to the players before this game: ‘Look, we need a response, we need a reaction, we need a performance’.
“Good performances don’t always get you wins but you know that you’ve gone out there and you’ve given it your all.
“We started well on the front foot tonight, the crowd was right behind us and we thoroughly deserved to go in 1-0 up at half-time.
“To be fair, we should have been three or four up at half-time. That was the only concern for me.
“That first-half display merited three or four goals. They cleared two off the line and we missed other chances.
“I always felt that we needed that second goal. But if we perform like that again, we’ll win more than we lose.”
