HEAD COACH Paul Mariner has admitted Argyle must play 'error-free football' to stand any chance of escaping the clutches of relegation.

The Pilgrims have repeatedly been punished for their defensive mistakes during a season of struggle in the Championship.

Mariner knows that unless his side start cutting out the mistakes they are making there is only one likely outcome.

But he continues to applaud the application shown by the players, despite all the setbacks they have encountered this term.

"The willingness to work hard for each other is there for all to see," said Mariner.

"We know we need to make our own luck, but we just need something to go our way."

Argyle put in a decent performance against West Bromwich Albion at Home Park on Saturday, but still ended up losing 1-0.

Mariner continued: "One thing everybody in this league is assured of is they are going to get a game when they play us.

"We gave West Brom everything they could handle on Saturday. We have just got to keep doing that.

"We have got to play error-free football these days. The errors we are making in games, we are getting knocked out with."

The lack of goals has also been a serious issue for Argyle this season, and that continues to be the case.

They are the lowest scorers in the Championship with 23 goals in their 27 games.

And the Pilgrims have only netted twice in their last six matches – four of them in the league and two in the FA Cup – since beating Reading 4-1 at Home Park on December 28.

Mariner believes there is reason for optimism that Argyle will soon start to improve their goal return.

He said: "I suppose everybody has seen the difference in the set pieces. The movement is very good and we are causing teams a lot of problems."

Striker Jamie Mackie and midfielder Alan Judge are Argyle's joint top scorers with five goals this season.

Rory Fallon, the New Zealand international forward, has netted four times and Alan Gow – now on loan at Hibernian – has scored twice.

Otherwise, no other player has more than one goal to his credit.

Mariner said: "When you are a striker, or any player really, and you haven't scored for a while you tend to get a bit nervous in front of goal and you snatch at things a little bit.

"All we have got to do is just try to be cool, calm and collected in there, which is easier said than done.

"There is nobody who wants to score more than Jamie, Rory and all the lads, but teams defend very well in this league.

"I see now why this is a very popular league with the fans. It's all action, and there is always something going on."

Reading have had an eventful time since they were soundly beaten by Argyle at Home Park at the end of December.

They opened 2010 with a 1-1 draw at home to Liverpool in the FA Cup third round and then stunned the nation by winning the replay at Anfield 2-1 after extra-time.

Reading lost 2-1 away to Nottingham Forest in their next Championship fixture before creating another FA Cup upset.

The Royals took the scalp of another Premier League club when they beat Burnley 1-0 in the fourth round at the Madejski Stadium.

That result led to caretaker boss Brian McDermott being appointed as Reading manager on a permanent basis on a 12-month rolling contract.

McDermott had taken over control of the first team after the dismissal of Brendan Rodgers a week before Christmas.

Reading followed up their win against Burnley with a 3-0 defeat at Sheffield United in the Championship.

But they have since won their last two league games – 1-0 at home to Barnsley and 2-1 at Doncaster Rovers on Saturday.

The Royals will take on Argyle at the Madejski Stadium tonight without centre-back Matt Mills.

He is suspended after being sent-off for deliberate handball against Doncaster.

Mills will be replaced by either on-loan Blackburn Rovers defender Zurab Khizanishvili or Alex Pearce.