READING, England (AFP) - Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish has thrown down the gauntlet to his forwards after revealing that Scotland striker James McFadden will be out for two weeks.

The 24-year-old underwent surgery on his knee on Saturday morning and will now miss Birmingham's home match against Manchester City and their away game against Premier League relegation rivals Wigan Athletic.

It is a major loss for Birmingham, who in McFadden's absence slumped to a 2-1 defeat against Reading at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday that left them just a point above the bottom three.

"James had a small tear in his knee and had keyhole surgery this morning and we will miss him for the next two games," McLeish said after the defeat at the Madejski Stadium.

"It happened after the Newcastle game. We were not concerned at first because we thought it was just a knock.

"But over the past few days the physiotherapist expected it was a tear in his knee, and so it proved to be. It now lets other players the chance to get to play."

Andre Bikey scored twice for Reading, heading in from two set-pieces either side of half-time as Birmingham twice conceded in a manner designed to give former Scotland centre-half McLeish particular cause for concern.

The Blues have now just one won game in their last 12 but Bolton, Fulham and Derby are all still beneath City in the table.

Now is the time of the season where some managers an plenty of fans at clubds towards the bottom-of-the-table start calculating how many points their side might need to stay up.

But McLeish said his experience as Scotland manager had taught him to focus on the task at hand.

"I don't really like doing the points thing. I did that for the Scotland campaign and (Arsenal manager) Arsene Wenger said 24 points would be enough to qualify for the European Championships but it wasn't.

"Three-pointers are becoming essential for us and it us important we pick up those points because it is very tight. We need to keep everyone fit and to stop shipping goals.

"I was extremely disappointed with this result but there is not a lot I can do about it now. I cannot go out there and head the ball clear myself," said the Aberdeen great.

"We have to rely on the guys to deal with these situations and the individual errors have cost us, because we should have won that game."

Meanwhile Reading manager Steve Coppell was insisting his team were not safe from relegation even though this win put the Royals five points clear of the bottom three and nine points shy of his safety target of 40.

"I am not worried about anyone else," Coppell said. "It doesn't matter how you go about getting the points, so long as you get them."

The former Manchester United and England winger added: "I still think we are capable of getting 40 points. We have seven games left, so the ball is very much in our court.

"It doesn't matter what anyone else does, so long as we get the 40 points. It is down to us to achieve what we are capable of.

"There are still going to be a few twists and turns. At this stage of the season there are some desperation results."

Coppell admitted he was concerned after Reading surrendered their first-half lead after Mauro Zarate cancelled out Bikey's opener.

"Birmingham changed their shape to give us more problems and when they scored they looked a little bit stronger than us.

"At one stage I thought we were going to get punished because we had more than enough chances to win the game."