JOEY van den Berg urged his Reading FC teammates to buck up their ideas and stop making 'stupid mistakes'.

The Dutch midfielder, who recently penned a fresh one-year contract extension at Madejski Stadium, said Royals only have themselves to blame for successive defeats against Millwall and Norwich.

Royals have not won a home fixture since beating Aston Villa back in August and are without a victory in five Championship matches, leaving Jaap Stam's side 20th in the table.

Van den Berg fumed: “We were so comfortable in the first-half against Norwich, they weren't dangerous.

"We showed we can do it, but if we keep conceding goals so easily then you can’t play football.

“The teams that come here now adjust to how we play. They are waiting on our mistakes and unfortunately we keep making them.

“Teams set traps and we keep falling into them. It’s hard to take because most of the time it’s our own fault.

“We need to work it out because otherwise we will keep losing games with stupid mistakes. If we get that out of our system I know we’ll be grand.”

Both of Norwich’s goals on Saturday were scored from set-pieces.

James Maddison fired the Canaries into a 10th minute lead when he curled an unstoppable free-kick past Vito Mannone.

Liam Moore headed Jaap Stam's Royals back on level terms three minutes later with his first goal of the season.

But Cameron Jerome headed Norwich back in front seven minutes after the break when he lost Tyler Blackett at a Maddison corner.

Van den Berg, 31, added: “We keep conceding from these corners and keep telling each other every week it won’t happen again, but then it happens.

“I don’t know what to do, we need to think of something else because this obviously isn’t working.”

Van den Berg’s contract extension keeps him at Madejski Stadium until summer 2019.

He stated: “I’m happy with the deal and I’m very happy that the club has given me the opportunity to stay here for another year.

“But at the moment that’s the only thing I’m happy about.”