Jordan Obita blasted his Reading FC teammates following his long-awaited return to Championship football, writes Courtney Friday.

The former academy star made his first start at Madejski Stadium in more than two years and saw out 90 minutes in the disappointing 2-1 defeat to Blackburn Rovers on Saturday.

Reading’s defence crumbled early on allowing Adam Armstrong to pick out the far corner before Bradley Dack piled misery on Jose Gomes' teamearly in the second half.

John Swift did claw one back for the Royals but Gomes’ side failed to create enough chances to equalise as they slipped to a third successive defeat.

“The team wasn’t good enough,” groaned Obita.

“We expect our performances to be much better than what we showed.

“It’s disappointing because we wanted to play much better than we did.

“There’s always a game plan throughout the week to prepare for the weekend but we were too sloppy in possession and unfortunately that cost us.

“We need to put that right as soon as possible because that’s three losses on the bounce now.

“The manager was disappointed. He told us we need to start fighting more.”

Royals splashed more than 10 million on strikers Lucas Joao and George Puscas over the summer but neither forward was able to impact the game on Saturday.

And Obita insisted price-tags mean nothing at Championship level.

“It’s the toughest league in the world,” he stated.

“You never know what will happen on the day. If players don’t turn up then it doesn’t matter about money, you will lose.

“We have to work harder and score more goals. We need to stick to our plan and make sure we work harder. We have to be more ruthless.”

Despite the negative result, Obita admitted he has waited a long time to step out onto the pitch at Madejski Stadium following the horrific injury he sustained against Hull City in 2017.

He added: “It was good to be back out there because I’ve worked hard to get to this moment. Hopefully I can push on now and get more games under my belt.

“We’ve still got 38 games to play and I want to play in as many of them as possible.”