Thursday 23 April 2015 19:00, UK
Reading manager Steve Clarke saw his beaten FA Cup semi-finalists lose 1-0 at home to Birmingham City but has vowed to field strong teams during the Sky Bet Championship run-in.
Though Reading are safe from the drop, they face games against Brentford, Rotherham United and Derby County.
"It's a difficult problem," Clarke said. "I'd like to keep a few youngsters in and around the squad but the game on Saturday is a big game for the league because Brentford have a chance for the play-offs.
"On Tuesday, that could be a big relegation game for Rotherham. And the same in our last game against Derby, with them fighting for a play-off spot.
"I'll have to balance between giving one or two youngsters a chance to play, like I did tonight, or picking a stronger, more established team.
"But we still want to some win games as well. I want to finish at home on Saturday with a win, for sure.
"It was a frustrating game tonight and we've had a few of them lately. A good performance again but no points again. I've said that a few times. It's a familiar tale for us."
Clarke kept faith with seven of the players who had started at Wembley on Saturday, including goalkeeper Adam Federici.
It was Federici who fumbled Alexis Sanchez's tame shot into his own net, giving Arsenal a 2-1 Cup win after extra time.
In contrast to their Cup exploits, Reading's league form has been poor. Defeat against Birmingham left them with only two wins in 14 league matches.
They started encouragingly, though, with Garath McCleary - scorer of their equaliser against Arsenal - cutting inside before driving wide.
Jamie Mackie also wasted two efforts before McCleary forced a fine save from Birmingham keeper Darren Randolph.
Reading continued to press in the second half, as Birmingham defended stubbornly, and went close on several occasions.
Birmingham came back into it late on, with Federici twice saving smartly from substitute Demarai Gray.
But he could do nothing about Clayton Donaldson's winner in the 83rd minute. Stephen Gleeson crossed from the left and Donaldson rose unchallenged to nod in his 16th goal of the season.
Donaldson almost netted his 17th in stoppage time but Federici ran from his line to smother the shot.
"Our away form has not been good since the turn of the New Year and we wanted to do something about that," Gary Rowett, the Birmingham manager, said.
"There was a lack of intensity in the match and it felt like and end-of-season game. We weren't as attacking as we'd have liked and we had to weather a bit of pressure from Reading. But they didn't have too many chances.
"We made some changes later in the game and it really opened up for us. We probably had more clear-cut chances in the last 15 minutes than we've had in the last five or six games. We should have gone on and scored a couple more goals."
