Mark McGhee today questioned the mental strength of his players following Albion's first Championship defeat of the season against Reading.

Goals in each half from Glen Little and Dave Kitson gave Steve Coppell's Royals victory at Withdean last night.

McGhee was disappointed with his side's performance after Saturday's promising display in a draw at Derby.

The Seagulls' boss said: "As good as we were on Saturday we were poor. I question whether we believe we can play consecutively the way we played at Derby.

"Do we have the mental strength to carry on and do the same again two or three days later?

"That is what we have to learn because it was excellent on Saturday, but this time we were very ordinary.

"We passed the ball at times but we never went anywhere. We had no cutting edge and we never really threatened them.

"It was not the fault of one person or one area of the team. It was that the team were not mentally charged as they were on Saturday.

"What we have to do as a group is be more consistent in terms of our tempo and our concentration."

Argentinian striker Federico Turienzo made his league debut for Albion after coming on as a second-half substitue to partner Colin Kazim-Richards up front.

McGhee said: "He has been injured and is not fully fit but we thought we would throw him in at the deep end to introduce him to the crowd and the surroundings.

"He showed he was a good footballer and got shots on target. I was generally pleased with him."