Reading boss Steve Coppell admits his leaky defence left him "frightened" after their 3-0 reverse at home to West Ham.

He said: "It's the first time since I have been here when I have been frightened when we attacked. It was naive to say the least. Every time we got forward in numbers they hit us on the break.

"We spoke about it at half-time but in the second half it was doubly so. Of their three goals two of them came from our corners and the first was the result of scavenging off a loose ball in midfield.

"With the international break coming up we have to do a lot of thinking to redirect what we are about.

"I'm all for attacking football and I tell players to commit forward but we had no structure. The number of times they broke, particularly down the left side, really hurt us. They could easily have scored a couple more.

"First and foremost we have a lot of soul-searching to do and then evaluate. One result has seen us hitting the alarm bells I must admit. We have a lot to do before our next game."