Birmingham City 0-1 Reading

John Swift scored his seventh goal of the season

Reading dug deep to beat an out-of-sorts Birmingham and move to within three points of the Championship's automatic promotion places.

Liam Kelly curled against the bar for the Royals and saw a shot denied by Ryan Shotton's block before half time.

The hosts should have led, but Lukas Jutkiewicz stumbled when trying to convert Kerim Frei's centre.

With the game fizzling out, John Swift sidefooted in Jordan Obita's low cross for a third successive victory.

Birmingham manager Gianfranco Zola still awaits his first win in charge, and has picked up just three points from a possible 27 since taking over.

It was a first clean sheet at St Andrew's for Jaap Stam's side in 12 league attempts, despite being without defensive players Tiago Ilori, Joey van den Berg and Paul McShane.

Reading had conceded 26 goals in their previous 13 away games, but now have a four-point gap over fourth placed Leeds.

Despite no victory since Gary Rowett's final match in charge on 13 December, the Blues remain in the top half.

Birmingham manager Gianfranco Zola: "There is no idea in my mind to give up on this situation. I know can turn this around. I have the anger and determination to do this. At the moment there is no doubt about my position.

"I've been in other difficult situations in my career. It has not always been easy. It is not going to change this time.

"The players are still on board and if I didn't see that I would be stepping back for sure. If there not the spark between the coach and players then you obviously have to do something else."

Reading manager Jaap Stam: "It was a good overall performance. We were aware that Birmingham, with a new manager, were trying to play a different type of football.

"The weather conditions were not good and it made it difficult at times and with the quality Birmingham possess they made it troublesome for us.

"Everyone in the team played well to get the result we wanted. It is difficult in this league to win every game, but we are trying. Sometimes you need to lose a couple of games to be aware of where you need to improve and get results."