Cambridge United manager Garry Monk labelled his sides New Year's Day defeat to Reading 'a brutal one.'

Former U's Harvey Knibbs and Sam Smith did the damage for Noel Hunt's Royals in the 3-1 win at the Abbey Stadium.

However, the relegation-threatened hosts were the better team for large parts of the match, particularly in a below-par first-half for the visitors.

Elias Kachunga found the net for Monk's side, who remain five points adrift of safety in League One, but both the post and crossbar were hit as well as making it a busy afternoon for Joel Pereira.

Speaking on his sides fourth straight defeat, and a second defeat to Reading in the space of a month, Monk said: "It’s a brutal one. For everything we put into the game- some really strong moments and really strong periods of the game- it comes down to the opportunities that we had and we couldn’t force the ball in and get the deserved lead. It’s just the crucial moments, again, where they scored out of nothing.

"We battled back into the game and had the ascendancy so many times. It’s a really hard one to take but the bare minimum of effort, commitment, attitude and desire was all there today and has been there for the majority of the season.

"Those crucial moments where you need the quality to finish it off, we didn’t quite have. When you need to defend the crucial moments, again, it went against us today."

Reading travel to play-off chasing Charlton Athletic on Saturday, who were without a match on New Year's Day due to flooding at Crawley Town.