PAUL Clement refused to dress up Reading FC’s ‘dreadful’ home form after tonight's defeat to QPR.

Toni Leistner’s first-half strike condemned Royals to a fifth loss in six home games this season.

Clement accepted the blame partly lay with him after admitting he may have got his team selection wrong.

And he stressed Royals, who lost top scorer Jon Dadi Bodvarsson in the warm-up, must now find a solution to their woeful results at Madejski Stadium.

Yakou Meite did hit the post for the home side in the second-half, but he and Saeid Ezatolahi were both booked for simulation by referee Andy Davies.

Reading Chronicle:

Yakou Meite was booked for simulation following this challenge.

Andy Yiadom also had a strong penalty appeal turned down by the official, who had a poor game all night.

Clement fumed: “I’m not happy with the performance. Even if we had nicked a draw at the end when Yakou hit the post I still would have been disappointed with the way we played.

“Our home form is dreadful with five losses out of six.

“We battle away from home, maybe because we concentrate more because you know it’s so tough.

“You have to get the tactics and fight right. Today we were caught between a lot of situations, the shape of the team wasn’t right.”

Reading Chronicle:

Saeid Ezatolahi goes down in the QPR box before being booked for 'diving'.

Clement initially made two changes from the side that drew 2-2 at Brentford on Saturday.

But Bodvarsson then pulled a calf muscle in the warm-up forcing a late change of plans.

However, Clement refused to use that as an excuse.

“I think I could have chosen a better line-up,” he admitted.

“I still believe it was right to make some changes with Saturday-Tuesday games.

“The fans saw our players cramping up at Brentford, some were carried off.

“So I thought I was right to make changes, though whether I got them right is another matter.”

Reading Chronicle:

Toni Leistner scores QPR's winner.

Clement confirmed Bodvarsson will now have a scan before Saturday’s trip to West Brom.

But he denied the absence of his six-goal leading scorer against QPR caused the defeat.

“It wasn’t the reason we played poorly,” he stressed. “It’s not ideal when you have to make a change in the warm up, but we’re always ready for those situations.

“I just thought the first half was flat. It was a poor game for me, not a good standard.

“It’s not an excuse but we looked tired. We had a lot of players cramping up in the heat at Brentford so I tried to freshen it up a little bit.

“However, I thought we looked leggy tonight.”

Reading Chronicle:

Chris Gunter is gutted at the final whistle.

Royals had three penalty claims turned down on the night and Clement argued: “I haven’t seen any back on replay, but I thought the third one (Yiadom’s) was a good shout for a penalty.

“I thought the referee made a lot of mistakes. I didn’t go to see him after the game but it will be reflected in our report.”