Reading were a goal down within three minutes at Norwich in their crushing 7-1 defeat

Reading manager Jaap Stam is confident his players will learn the lessons of their chastening 7-1 defeat at Norwich.

The Royals were 5-0 down within 35 minutes at Carrow Road on Saturday in their first defeat in four games.

"We've had a couple of defeats in a row before this season and we've succeeded in bouncing back," Stam said.

"The players have got the mentality to want to do that and I'm confident in the team that they'll want to do well towards the end of the season."

Reading remained fourth in the Championship. They have a six-point cushion inside the play-off places over seventh-placed Fulham with five games remaining.

"Unfortunately days like this can happen," Stam admitted to BBC Radio Berkshire. "But we still have five very important games to go to secure that top-six spot.

"There's not going to be a lot of difference (on the training ground) in what we normally do. We'll speak about what's happened and we'll show some clips and talk about what we need to improve and be better at.

"But sometimes it's not tactical, it's about feeling from players. Because you're working with human beings, you can't always bring the same standards week in, week out.

"We're a team of young players that need to develop, but also some older ones who sometimes struggle to play to the standards they did before.

"If we're not playing up to standard, perhaps we need to make it a bit more difficult for the opposition."