Newcastle United 4-1 Reading

Newcastle United's summer signing Isaac Hayden scored his first goal for the club

Newcastle secured their first win since relegation to the Championship as they beat Reading at St James' Park.

After Dwight Gayle had a goal disallowed for handball, the hosts went ahead when Isaac Hayden was first to react to a loose ball in the box.

Garath McCleary equalised from the spot on the stroke of half-time.

Matt Ritchie's penalty edged the hosts ahead again, while Gayle's free-kick and close-range finish secured Newcastle an emphatic victory.

• Wednesday's EFL action as it happened

Roy Beerens thought he had scored Reading's second goal but his effort was ruled out for offside.

Rafael Benitez's side, playing in the second tier for the first time since 2009-10, had lost their opening two matches at Fulham and at home to Huddersfield on Saturday.

Newcastle started the stronger but had Gayle booked when he turned the ball into the back of the net with his left hand.

Debutant Ciaran Clark headed a Jonjo Shelvey corner over the crossbar, before Hayden pounced after Ali Al-Habsi saved a Ritchie free-kick

Reading grew in confidence and Beerens hit the bar, while McCleary scored from the spot after Clark brought down John Swift.

Ritchie put his spot-kick into the bottom left-hand corner to restore Newcastle's lead and Gayle's 30-yard free-kick and close-range finish made sure of a much-needed victory.

Dwight Gayle scored twice and had a goal disallowed for Newcastle

Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez:

"It was important for me, for the fans, for the players, for everyone here to get three points today.

"The first two games without playing so badly, we didn't get any points.

"Today we showed character, a good reaction after the goal we conceded, and that's what we have we to do, play well sometimes and show character all the time."

Reading manager Jaap Stam told BBC Radio Berkshire:

"I think if you look at the game in total, we were the better team in how we played. If we concede goals like this every time, we're going to make it very hard for ourselves.

"But, if you look at the way we played in our intention and style of play with what we did on the pitch, I think we can be very proud of the guys as they've done a very good job.

"We had a lot of possession and created some very good chances and were a threat coming forward.

"If we keep on playing the way we did today, I'm sure we're going to be winning a lot of games."