Yakou Meite shouldn’t have scored Reading’s first goal the way he did, says Thomas Frank, as he called on his Brentford side to defend better against set-pieces.

The in-form striker latched onto a sublime Modou Barrow pass to score before poor marking enabled him to nod home a Lewis Baker free-kick seven minutes later.

While the Bees recovered from that nightmarish seven minutes, with Neal Maupay scoring his 26th goal this season, they would slump to their 11th away defeat.

READ: Player ratings from Brentford's defeat to Reading

Frank said: “[For the first goal] we are trying to create and then we lose the ball and try to counter-press, and we actually didn’t win it but delayed the situation, so had plenty of time to get organised behind.

“We should be organised anyway. That situation we didn’t step or drop and that gave us a big problem.

“It was the same situation like [Collin] Quaner had on Wednesday, so of course we talked about that, we tried to adjust it, but it’s one thing talking and another adjusting. We didn’t drop quick enough. That should never have been a goal, but fair play, they scored.

“The second one, we need to do better. He’s just running in front of our player, and we need to drop and take him out of the game earlier.”

Frank was pleased with how Brentford performed in the second 45 minutes, but said his side lacked quality when it mattered most.

While the loss contributes to their woeful away record, it doesn’t deny them a top-half finish as rivals QPR thrashed Swansea City 4-0 at home.

As it happened: Reading 2 Brentford 1

When asked whether Reading deserved to win, he added: “Yeah, definitely. It’s difficult to say if they came out with more energy and intensity, but the first goal changed that momentum, so they got more boost, more confidence.

“From then on, they never looked back.

“I think you could see there was a little bit of fear [in them during] second half, but we didn’t have the real quality to punish them today.

“Maybe we lacked the freshness, whatever.

“Then you could see when they defended they were sprinting back in every single situation. And they should do, they’re fighting for their lives, so fair play.”