Championship: Reading 3-1 Bournemouth - Royals climb to fourth with victory
- Published
Reading centre-back Tom McIntyre netted their second goal after Asmir Begovic failed to hold on to a free-kick
Reading further underlined their Championship promotion credentials with a convincing win against out-of-form Bournemouth.
First-half goals from Josh Laurent, Tom McIntyre and Lucas Joao helped stretch their unbeaten run to six games and lifted them to fourth in the table, level on points with second-placed Swansea.
Bournemouth improved after the break but a late free-kick from Junior Stanislas only proved to be a consolation.
Laurent capitalised on a half-cleared corner for the opening goal before centre-back McIntyre reacted quickest to stab home when Asmir Begovic failed to hold Michael Olise's free-kick.
Joao then added a third shortly before half-time with his 15th league goal of the season, getting on the end of Ovie Ejaria's through ball and weaving past Bournemouth captain Steve Cook before finding the bottom left corner.
A third successive league defeat for Bournemouth leaves them sixth and with only one victory from their past seven games.
After a promising start to the game, they were effectively out of the contest by half-time as Reading took their chances clinically.
A triple change at the break saw manager Jason Tindall bring on David Brooks, Jack Wilshere and Adam Smith. But Wales international Brooks and England midfielder Wilshere could not instigate a meaningful comeback.
Chris Mepham and Joshua King were both denied by fine defensive blocks by Tom Holmes while Philip Billing and Cook had a shot and a header clawed away by Reading goalkeeper Rafael Cabral.
It took the introduction of forward Stanislas on his return from injury late on to end their near three-game wait for a league goal.
He found a gap in the Reading defensive wall to net his eighth league goal of the season but they were unable to add to it.
Reading manager Veljko Paunovic told BBC Radio Berkshire:
"It was a perfect performance, first half especially, the one we were looking for especially playing against a very good side in Bournemouth.
"The second half was perfectly imperfect, we had to manage the game and I felt we did that fantastically well.
"We needed to have everyone at their best, we needed to have an enormous effort and energy like we did in the first half.
"We were playing like a machine, every one fighting for each other and every single ball. There was fantastic execution in attack and the energy to get us on the ball more.
"This is a great moment, winning against a contender for the league is a huge achievement and yes, we're raring to go for the next game, but an eight-day break now will do us good."
Bournemouth manager Jason Tindall told BBC Radio Solent:
"In the first half, individual responsibility let us down and we gave ourselves a mountain to climb.
"When you're 3-0 down at half-time against a good side like Reading, it's extremely difficult. I was really, really disappointed with the manner of the goals we conceded, the first two especially.
"You've got your man to mark at set plays and it's your duty to carry that out and deal with it.
"I felt we were a lot better in the second half and I made those three changes at the break as I wasn't happy with what I'd seen beforehand.
"There's still 60 points to play for and we're still in a respectable position. But we need to start picking up points quickly.
"We've got another game coming up on Tuesday and it's our duty to go out there and put in a performance that delivers three points."