Reading 2 (Long 61, Kitson 88)
Man City 0

The Royals moved up to 13th in the Barclays Premier League table with a deserved 2-0 victory at home to Manchester City today.

Second half goals from Shane Long and substitute Dave Kitson earned us back-to-back wins, and pulled us out of the relegation zone.

The first half was a tight affair, and City lost skipper Richard Dunne on the half hour through injury, while Michael Johnson had a penalty claim waved away, and was booked for simulation. Verdan Corluka missed a sitter, but was offside anyway.

Reading upped the tempo after the break, and Andre Bikey's strike off the crossbar signalled our intent.

Just past the hour, Long capitalised on great work from strike partner Kevin Doyle to sidefoot past Joe Hart and send the home crowd into raptures.

Long could have made it 2-0 a minute later and City had a fair amount of ball after that but never stretched Marcus Hahnemann.

And with time almost up, sub Kalifa Cisse took a quick free kick to find Kitson, who danced past a couple of challenges before slipping home expertly.

The result was another big step in our bid to stave off the drop, and although more of the teams at the bottom are still to play this weekend, being up in 13th gives everyone connected with the Club a huge boost.

Reading (4-4-2): Hahnemann; Rosenior, Shorey, Bikey, Ingimarsson (c); Harper, Matejovsky (Cisse 78), Oster, Hunt; Doyle, Long (Kitson 82)
Subs: Federici, Sonko, Kebe

Man City (4-2-3-1): Hart; Garrido, Ball, Corluka, Dunne (c) (Jihai 29); Fernandes, Hamann (Castillo 65); Johnson, Elano, Vassell (Caicedo 58); Benjani
Subs: Schmeichel, Ireland
Yellow: Hamann (foul 18), Johnson (simulation 43)

Referee: Mr U Rennie

Att: 24,062

First half
There was an edgy start to the first half with neither side establishing the ascendancy early on.

City were playing with a 4-2-3-1 formation with wingers Darius Vassell and Elano encouraged to push on, while the Royals were in their accustomed 4-4-2, and in the opening stages the teams seemed to be getting to grips with each other.

Liam Rosenior on the right and Stephen Hunt on the left delivered two early crosses, while John Oster's cute pass was just too far ahead of Kevin Doyle.

City were looking composed in possession but their first effort on goal was a very wayward long-range effort by Javier Garrido after nine minutes.

With 18 minutes played Didier Hamman was booked after two late challenges in quick succession on Stephen Hunt, before Oster was able to cut back a high cross from the byline which Hunt met with a looping header to force Hart into a stretching save.

Midway through the period City squandered a wonderful opportunity when Elano's curling free-kick from distance dropped to the unmarked Vedran Corluka six yards out, but the Croatian skied his half-volley too high. The flag was up in any event.

After half an hour City were forced into a substitution when Richard Dunne suffered a gashed shin in a 50/50 challenge with Hunt, which saw Jihai Sun come on at right back and Corluka switch to the middle.

Reading finished the half strongly, and had three half chances to score before the break, firstly when Kevin Doyle flicked Hunt's corner flashing across the face of goal.

Then Shane Long got his head on an Oster free-kick from deep but saw his glancing header skim wide of the far post, before a clearance from a Nicky Shorey cross dropped out to Marek Matejovsky whose well struck drive was solidly parried by Joe Hart.

But there was a big scare for Reading just before the break when Benjani crossed from the left and Michael Johnson got there just ahead of Ivar Ingimarsson and went down under a challenge from the Icelander, but Uriah Rennie ruled it to be a dive and produced a yellow card for the visiting midfielder.

Second half
The first sniff at goal in the second half came in the 49th minute when Hunt's corner was headed out as far as Matejovsky, but his 20-yard volley flashed well wide.

City responded with a spell of pressure and Gelson Fernandes warmed Marcus Hahnemann's hands with a 25-yard volley after a half-clearance by Ingimarsson, before Elano fizzed a long-range effort narrowly wide.

Reading were soon back on the front foot and won a corner when Oster's cross was deflected out of Shane Long's path. Ingimarsson nodded down Oster's delivery and Hunt tried an acrobatic effort but it was blocked wide.

Sven Goran Eriksson freshened things up after an hour with the introduction of youngster Felipe Caicedo for Vassell, who had faded after early promise.

But as the rain poured down Reading piled on the pressure, coming close when Matejovsky slipped a lovely pass to Doyle whose fierce drive was deflected into the side-netting.

The resulting corner was headed out to Shorey, whose dinked cross back into the box fell to Bikey, and the Cameroon defender held off a challenge before smashing a rising shot against the angle of post and bar.

The much-threatened opening goal came after 61 minutes and it was made in Ireland. Hahnemann's long ball was flicked on by Long, and Doyle did brilliantly to hold off Michael Ball on the left wing before delivering a pinpoint low cross to Long who sidefooted home from ten yards.

Immediately after the restart the same pair nearly combined for another when Doyle attacked down the right and curled over another great cross but Long couldn't keep his header on target.

City were struggling and Eriksson replaced Hamman with Nery Castillo as the visitors searched for a route back into the game.

The next ten minutes passed largely without incident as Reading concentrated their efforts on protecting their lead, and City offered little threat in attack with Benjani regularly getting caught offside.

With 12 minutes remaining Steve Coppell made a tactical change, replacing Matejovsky with the more combative Kalifa Cisse. But City were starting to control possession and Elano had two long-range efforts blocked.

Coppell then made his second change, replacing goalscorer Long with Dave Kitson. Caicedo looped a header well over, but within five minutes of coming on, Kitson secured all three points.

Cisse took a clever quick free kick, setting Kitson away down the right. He cut inside nicely, jinked past a couple of challenges and slipped it home expertly to make certain of the win.

It was a very good goal, and worthy of killing the game off.

Doyle had worked very hard throughout, and it would have been a perfect end if he could have scored but he nodded an injury time chance over.

It was irrelevant though, and we took three very welcome points.

We were the better team, and created a lot more. City had a fair amount of ball, but we defended well throughout, and took another three great points.

The significance of back-to-back wins cannot be underestimated, and with nine games to go Steve Coppell will keep the team working hard to capitalise on our position near to mid table.