IAN Evatt reckons his side’s wayward finishing was ultimately to blame for a “crazy” defeat at Reading.

Wanderers dropped from second to seventh in the League One table after a wasteful performance, shipping two goals in the last 13 minutes.

Dion Charles had put his side ahead and both he and strike partner Victor Adeboyejo had chances to extend the Whites’ advantage.

But once Charlie Savage had drilled in the equalising goal Reading – who were rocking after a three-point sanction from the EFL this week – went on to win the game courtesy of Caylan Vickers’ first professional goal.

“I am absolutely baffled as to how we ended up losing that game,” Evatt said after the final whistle. “We had so many critical chances, the game should have been out of sight by half time.

“You cannot afford to miss those opportunities – one, maybe, but two, three, four? That isn’t OK. And away from home if you don’t take them you give the opposition a little bit of sugar and it galvanises them and the crowd.

“A shot from distance then changes the entire momentum of the game and we didn’t wrestle it back. We wobbled and conceded a second.

“But it is crazy that we lost that game having created so many really good chances.”

Reading’s problems have stacked up of late, and fans threw tennis balls on to the pitch midway through the first half in protest against absent owner Dai Yongge.

There were question marks over how the Royals’ young team would cope with the pressure but Evatt feels his team let them off the hook completely.

“We talked about it in the week, when you get points deducted it can create a siege mentality and they are going to have spells when they are energised and galvanised. That was early in the game,” he said.

“The protest changed the momentum and we gained it. There was a 20-minute spell where we had three or four clear-cut chances where that game should be completely put to bed. It could and should have been four-nil at half time.

“Second half we had a lot of control for the first half an hour, great chances and there was a red card in there. I think throughout the game the refereeing consistency was poor.

“Every time we made a tackle it was a yellow card, every time they did they didn’t. Dion had no reason to go down and is clearly clipped and brought down. To give nothing is strange.

“But we had a big chance to put the game to bed with Dion, he missed, but as he missed he gets scythed from behind, which forces him on to his shoulder, and that isn’t ideal for him.

“The shot from distance changed everything and we couldn’t deal with them being galvanised.”

Charles has damaged his shoulder and could now be a doubt for next weekend’s game against Peterborough United.

Evatt confirmed that he withdrew the striker because of the injury but said decisions to swap Randell Williams and Victor Adeboyejo were down to tiredness.

Fellow subs Dan Nlundulu and Jon Dadi Bodvarsson also struggled to make an impression after being introduced to the game late on.

“Some of the players looked drained and fatigued,” said Evatt, asked about the substitutions. “We needed some energy to see the game out.

“Victor looked really tired, Randell looked physically tired, and bringing on two players of that experience should be enough to see us through. It didn’t, and as a group we have to accept what has happened today and strive for improvement.

“They are a good group, they are together, they know what is right and wrong. Losing football matches is not acceptable and nobody hurts more than us when we lose, especially when we have a team as talented as we think this one is.

“The fans were exceptional and they don’t deserve to see us lose games. It will happen – and we have to react and respond – but this is a game we shouldn’t have lost and there can’t be a person in the stadium that would think we would have done so with the chances we created.”