Reading boss Steve Coppell admits things are getting desperate over their relegation battle.

He said: "With 11 games to go we have six against teams I still consider to be in our division as it were - the eight or nine at the bottom. We need to get a return from those games but critically we need to do something beyond what we have done so far.

"We need to win away from home because if you don't it is just too much pressure on our home games. And we need to do what Birmingham did against Arsenal.

"I know that was in special circumstances but we need to pick up a result, even if it is one point, that would be psychologically more important than the actual effect on the table.

"We need to pick up a result against one of the bigger teams. We picked up three against Liverpool but that kind of performance seems to be long gone now."