A penalty from Tomi Adeloye proved to be only a consolation as Dale Eve and his Stoke City's Under-21 teammates lost 2-1 to Reading.
Stoke City, who were playing their first game at Macclesfield Town's Moss Rose ground, were undone by Sammi Fridjonsson, who netted both goals for the visitors either side of the break.
Fridjonsson broke the deadlock in the 24th minute after firing low and hard to Eve's right from 25 yards out after being teed up by Jack Stacey.
His second came with 25 minutes left to play as a corner was cleared only as far as the Icelander, who made no mistake from a similar distance.
Adeloye tucked away a penalty with ten minutes left but the Potters couldn't add a second to keep their unbeaten start to the 2014/15 campaign going.
