Reading continued their impressive away form with another victory this weekend to move back into that vital sixth position. This time the Royals defeated Birmingham City 2-1 at St. Andrews to record their fourth win from five games on the road. Only league leaders Leicester City have won more games away from home. If Reading's home form could match the current progress away from home then we would be in serious danger of confirming a play-off position - and a shot at promotion to the Premier League once more. Away from home we've picked up 13 points from a possible 15. At home we've managed just 5 from 15, and the last win was at the start of that run.

Birmingham City remain with just two home league wins all season but will be disappointed not to have picked up at least a point for their efforts. City started the strongest and enjoyed plenty of the game, forcing McCarthy to keep the Royals level, but were beaten by some swift Royals attacking that saw McAnuff pick up two goals. The first came on 39 minutes but City were level before half time when Gorkss conceeded a penalty. McAnuff's second, a close range effort, came with eight minutes left to play to seal the win.

Workmanlike away win from a side that is showing promotion form away from home, if only we could have worked out how to unpick defences at the Madejski, we'd have been challenging for automatic promotion.

Negatives, Le Fondre completely invisible unless he scores, which he hasn't for some time. Ponderous passing across the defence put us in trouble on a couple of occasions. At one stage we were being dominated by a side that hasn't won at home since 1st October. Gunter's astonishing square ball to no one when clear in on goal. What on earth was he thinking?

Positives, we took the game to them well in the last 20 minutes to force the win. Mcanuff took both goals well, Drenthe continues to grow into the season. I'd like to single out Akpan though as he seems to get a lot of criticism. I believe this guy could be a top player in time, he has absolutely everything you want as a midlielder in his locker, he just needs to bring it more consistently. He has a tremendous engine, does a lot of the dirty work well, plays a simple ball quickly and efficiently and has a quality pass at his disposal. His through ball to Gunter to set up the winner was quick and beautifully weighted. Yes, he switches off for short periods and yes he gets caught in possession occasionally but he has it all and, with more experience and maturity could be a huge asset. He needs to be supported and encouraged.
Schards#2

Any win is a good win of course and performances don't matter so much at this stage in the season.....but in all honesty Reading were uninspiring once again and it is hard to imagine them turning around a fairly mediocre season at this stage and hitting a bit of form to win through in the play offs.

We were fully in control of a tepid first half until a very soft penalty award. The referee took an age to give it and having seen it again it looks a poor decision. Second half however we were largely outplayed by Birmingham but still created the best 2 or 3 chances of the game, Pog somehow contriving to scoop over from 8 yards out. Obita was absolutely superb at left back, continually impressed by this young lad's quality and composure on the ball, he is a real plus in this season. Drenthe and Guthrie showed again how little we will miss them next season; the former's most telling contribution was in tackling a well-placed Gunter and the latter best summed up by a sloppy pass conceding possession back to Birmingham, forcing him into a challenge he otherwise wouldn't have needed to make which prompted an all-too-familiar strop.
floyd__streete

Blues didn’t have the clinical edge in front of goal, though, nor the rub of the green. And the goals they conceded both came from swift counter-attacks against a play-off-pushing side who have that trait as their great strength. Reading had scored 11 times in their previous four away trips. Those goals could have been avoided, which exacerbated the frustrations. Blues have now won once in the last eight games with six defeats.

Blues have performed poorly and with little about them at St Andrew’s this season. But on this occasion, the just deserts were not served up as they should have been. "The lads played well," said Clark. "We more than matched a very good Reading team. Anyone who thinks Reading deserved to win are not seeing the game in the right way."
Birmingham Mail

Reading manager Nigel Adkins:
"They were two excellent goals and, watching it back, two excellent footballing goals. I'm surprised [McAnuff] hasn't scored more and it's not as if he's not had chances but it's great that he's gone and scored them here and all being well he'll go on a nice run now. We wanted to win the division but great credit to Leicester and Burnley for what they've done so far this season. We're in the play-off race and it's a very exciting time in the season for everybody."