Jose Gomes said that he wanted to take responsibility following his sides 2-0 defeat against high-flying Charlton Athletic at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday.

After a goalless first half, the visitors opened the scoring after Jonathan Leko’s strike took a cruel deflection off of Tom Mcintyre. The three points were all but secured after Lyle Taylor converted from the penalty spot.

Reading came close twice in the first half through George Puscas who struck the crossbar before failing to convert a one-on-one opportunity at the end of the half.

The Reading manager said that his decision to replace wing-backs Andy Yiadom and Omar Richards with forwards Yakou Meite and Lucas Boye was in order to give his side more attacking threat, but it wasn’t enough to change the course of the match.

“In the first half we created clear goalscoring opportunities which we missed and in the second half after their goal it looked like the team were scared with the things that happened.

“That is why I changed my wingbacks with more offensive players, but it was not enough. We created one more goal situation and we missed. It was a step-back, but we are still in the right way.

“The only one who is responsible for today’s result is me. I want to protect my players from the things that people can say off of the pitch. I take all the responsibility for the result.

“I wanted to give more offensive energy to my team, and I thought with three centre backs and one holding midfielder it was enough to stop the counter-attack.

“Sometimes these things do not happen, and you have to take responsibility like I am doing now.”

When asked if he would have taken seven points from the opening six games at the start of the season, Gomes said that he had hoped for more points on the board by this point in the season.

“We have a long season ahead of us. The idea I have in my mind is that we are five points away from where we want to be right now. We have a lot of games to make up these five points.”