JAAP Stam blamed his players for their poor decision making after Reading FC were beaten by QPR in the hoops derby.

Former Royal loanee Jamie Mackie netted the decisive goal in the first half to earn Ian Holloway's visitors victory at the Madejski Stadium.

It was a night to forget for Reading after one of their most disappointing performances of the season when they had been looking to close the gap on second-placed Newcastle United to three points.

But it was Rangers who secured the bragging rights to ease their relegation worries.

Stam admitted: "I was disappointed with the performance because we wanted a result.

"We looked at their team and tried to work out how to hurt them. They normally play 4-3-3 but tonight went 5-3-2.

"They sat in defensively which made it difficult to create chances because it was very tight and they defended well.

"They were waiting for the moment to break and score a goal and they succeeded.

"We lost the ball in the build up, it was the wrong pass, we gave it away.

"After that you need to keep on going and remain patient. You need to make the right choices going forward, but we played that ball too quickly and too long."

The match drew in the lowest league attendance at Madejski Stadium this season, with the presence of Sky Sports cameras and heavy snow before kick-off doing little to draw fans in.

Nevertheless, Reading were second best for most of the night as they crashed to only a second home defeat this season.

"The players worked very hard and we're very disappointing," added Stam. "The effort from them was tremendous, but you need to be very sharp to score against sides like QPR.

"You need to make the right decisions at the right time. There's no point playing long balls into the box because Rangers have big, strong defenders.

"The opportunities we created we should have taken, but we couldn't do that.

"On the day we just weren't good enough to hurt them and win this game."