Adkins made two changes from his team that fell to a 2-1 home defeat to Huddersfield Town last Tuesday.

One was enforced as Pavel Pogrebnyak was ruled out with a calf injury, while Hope Akpan was dropped to the bench for the clash against the Championship leaders.

Ryan Edwards replaced Pogrebnyak and an impressive cameo from Aaron Kuhl against the Terriers last week earned him a start.

But despite it once again being a Royals squad full of youth, Adkins refused to use that as an excuse for the heavy Forest defeat.

“The four goals we conceded were poor,” he said. “I thought we were doing okay in the first half, we’d talked before the game about the threat of Michail Antonio at the back post but we didn’t deal with it.

“And right after half time there’s another goal - we’ve got to deal with that.

“So those goals changed the complexion of the game. Forest have a feelgood factor at the moment and they got up a head of steam. Then the third goal we should have dealt with.

“Yes we’ve got a young side but we made poor mistakes for the goals and when you look at the goals, senior players have held their hands up after the game.

“This is a great learning experience for the young lads - but I can’t get away from the fact we’ve conceded, poor, poor goals.”

Royals started brightly but failed to really test Karl Darlow in the host’s goal, and they fell behind 17 minutes in as growing pressure from Forest finally paid dividends.

Chris Burke advanced down the right-hand side and crossed for ex-Royals winger Antonio to head home via the crossbar.

Simon Cox, who re-joined Royals from Forest recently, and Kuhl had chances to draw the visitors level in the first-half, but neither could find the target.

And they were made to pay just two minutes into the second-half when Antonio grabbed his second goal of the game.

Jack Hunt delivered a deep cross and Antonio poked a leg at it to squeeze the ball past Adam Federici in the Royals goal.

It was a nightmare start to the half for Adkins’ men and it got worse as Matty Fryatt and Britt Assombologa fired home to ensure victory for the hosts.

One positive for the Royals on a miserable day in Nottingham, was that Kuhl once again looked very comfortable in the middle of the park.

The 18-year-old came on at half-time against Huddersfield Town and was the best player on the pitch, and again he looked calm and assured on his full debut against a strong Nottingham Forest side.

And Adkins is predicting a bright future for his starlet, who will surely be pushing for a place in the starting line-up at Middlesbrough this Saturday (3pm ko).

“I thought he had a super game,” added the Reading boss. “He’s captained the Under 18s and U21s and now he’s played the full 90 minutes in the Championship, always wanting the ball."

READING FC are due to travel to Nigel Adkins' former club Scunthorpe United in the Capital One Cup second round tomorrow night (Tuesday, 7.45pm ko).