Ipswich Town 2-0 Reading

Joe Garner has scored six Championship goals for Ipswich this season

Clinical finishing proved the difference as Ipswich Town ended Reading's five-match unbeaten run.

Town were soon ahead when Callum Connolly latched onto Martyn Waghorn's through ball and fired low past Vito Mannone from the edge of the area.

They doubled the lead when Joe Garner headed in from a corner.

Reading piled on plenty of pressure, but could not break through a stubborn defence, with midfielder Dave Edwards denied by Jordan Spence's fine block.

• Relive Saturday's EFL action

The sides had failed to serve up a goalless draw in all of their 58 previous meetings, and it took only a few minutes for Ipswich to extend that record.

Reading have seen more of the ball than any team in the Championship this season, and had three-quarters of the first-half possession, carving out more chances in the process.

While they failed to trouble home keeper Bartosz Bialkowski from eight attempts before the break, with Sone Aluko shooting just wide, Town scored with both of their goal-bound efforts.

The Royals continued to press after the break with Bialkowski keeping out Liam Moore's close-range header, but Spence almost scored a thrilling third, forcing Mannone to save low down after a 40-yard run.

Town, who have now scored 11 times in their last four matches at Portman Road, moved up a place to eighth and within two points of the top six.

Reading remain in 14th, but lose ground with the play-off contenders after only a second defeat in nine games.

Ipswich Town manager Mick McCarthy:

"Callum (Connolly) has been having a great season. He's helped bolster that central midfield, he's been very good and I keep saying to him, 'have you got a goal?'. He keeps shooting in training, either foot. He's proving my theory right which is nice.

"We have had a real solid performance today, and they are enjoying playing, they are enjoying training. It's always been like that, but it's a lot nicer when you're winning. You all feel a lot better."

Reading boss Jaap Stam:

"It is disappointing when you concede such an early goal like that.

"We need to look at ourselves and what we need to do better, but the referee was very bad. I think today the decisions went against us a number of times.

"The first thing is not to concede certain goals from set pieces and not giving the ball away too easily so the other team can break, but still it happens. We talk about it, but we need to improve it.