Coppell fretting over Royal rout

STEVE COPPELL admits Reading’s plunge towards relegation is giving him sleepless nights and that the fans’ vocal criticism of him is hurtful.

This abject defeat was the Royals’ sixth straight Premier League reverse and their fourth game without a goal in all competitions. It left them teetering on the brink of the drop zone and had Derby not scored a late equaliser at Birmingham they would now be in the bottom three.

“Does it give me sleepless nights?” Coppell asked. “Of course it does. I always think of that Bill Shankly quote: ‘Losing is worse than death because you have to live with losing.’