Cardiff City continued their poor form with yet another defeat, but this time it cost them a place in the fifth round of the FA Cup. The 2-1 defeat against Reading was also labelled by manager Russell Slade as the worst of his Cardiff tenure.

The manager has been unable to create an improvement in results after taking charge of the club a few months ago. This defeat against Reading was the third consecutive for the team in all competitions. The last two defeats have come in the Championship and this is likely to be the biggest priority for the club.

Those defeats have seen Cardiff slip to 13th place in the table. Even though there are a number of teams around them on the table, the prospect of even finishing in the play-offs looks to be slipping away from the Wales team. They are already 13 points adrift of the final play-off spot.

Slade may have been hoping for a better run in the FA Cup in order to overcome this disappointment. The manager says that the second 45 minutes against Reading was probably the worst he could have imagined. Cardiff scored in the first half through Kenwyne Jones but Reading responded with two goals in the second half from Norwood and Robson-Kanu.

“I’d have probably walked out myself if I was in the crowd.The second period it was dire from our point of view.In the second half it looked like there was only one team that was going to push on and do it if I’m honest and that’s what I am.I thought they put us on the back foot in the first 15 minutes of the second half and we found it difficult to string two passes together under that pressure,” said Slade, whose team are up against Derby in the next match.