Port Vale boss Darren Moore was left 'disappointed' and 'gutted' with his side's 2-0 defeat to Reading on Tuesday evening.
Lewis Wing and Harvey Knibbs' second-half strikes were enough to get past the struggling Valiants, but neither side tested the goalkeepers in a tough-to-watch- first half.
Moore, who signed a five-and-a-half-year deal at Vale Park last week, has now lost both of his first two matches in charge against fellow bottom-half teams.
Speaking after the defeat, the former West Brom boss said: "It’s a real tough one to take at this moment in time after the game. I feel for the players. We’ve probably got nobody but ourselves to blame. We switched off and its concentration that has done us again. We came here tonight and set our stall out. There are lots of positives tonight in terms of the way we went about it, the shape we played and the confidence of the players. Considering we had one day to work on it and two classroom sessions, it was really positive to see that the players looked at ease with it.
"Lots of positives but I’m disappointed and gutted because in the effort and endeavour we showed tonight and the positive play, we have nothing to show for it."
For a third successive home match, Shrewsbury Town are the visitors on Saturday and currently sit below the Royals in the League One table heading into the encounter.
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