Bristol City 2-1 Reading: Robins hold on to increase Royals' woes
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Antoine Semenyo (left) and Andreas Weimann combined for the former's fifth goal of the season
Struggling Reading lost for the sixth successive time in the Championship as they went down 2-1 at Bristol City.
A drab first period was brought to life shortly before the break when Antoine Semenyo fired in from close range for City after good work by Andreas Weimann.
City doubled their lead as some wonderful build-up play shortly after the restart saw Cameron Pring's cross turned into his own net by Michael Morrison under pressure from Alex Scott.
Semenyo hit the post with 25 minutes to go before John Swift pulled one back for Reading from the penalty spot to set up a tense finish.
However, the Royals failed to convert a host of late chances as they pushed for an equaliser.
Bristol City's first win in four games sees them move up to 16th place in the Championship.
Reading have now conceded 25 goals in their eight games in all competitions since the start of the year and remain two points and one place off the relegation spots after Peterborough's loss at Cardiff City.
Under-pressure manager Veljko Paunovic has seen his side win just twice since the middle of October, and even without their six-point deduction for breaching EFL financial rules the Royals would still be one place off the drop zone.
City needed a win almost as badly as Reading - they had won just twice in their past 10 games in all competitions - but had to do it without manager Nigel Pearson who was undergoing a "scheduled routine medical procedure" and his assistant Curtis Fleming took charge.
Despite having enjoyed more of the ball, City almost went behind in the 13th minute when Junior Hoilett, on his return from international duty with Canada, broke from deep and put Tom Dele-Bashiru in on goal, but Tomas Kalas did well to deflect his effort from the edge of the box wide.
Semenyo struck the side netting for City soon after as the Robins began to find their groove while Reading's debutant goalkeeper Karl Hein saved a low Jay Dasilva shot 10 minutes before the break.
The deadlock was finally broken when Pring's excellent through ball was picked up by Weimann who saw his shot blocked by Hein, but the Austrian managed to square the rebound to Semenyo for his first league goal at Ashton Gate.
England youth international Scott was at the centre of City's second as his fantastic flick allowed Chris Martin to find Semenyo, who fed Pring on the left and Morrison could not deal with his cross under pressure from Guernseyman Scott.
But the Royals gave themselves hope when debutant Tom Ince found space in the home penalty area and Timm Klose brought him down, allowing Swift to halve the deficit.
That led to a flood of Reading chances but a combination of City goalkeeper Max O'Leary, desperate defending and poor finishing saw Hoilett, Swift, Josh Laurent and Danny Drinkwater all denied a leveller.
Bristol City assistant manager Curtis Fleming told BBC Radio Bristol:
"It was very important for us to get the three points. You're thinking because we've conceded some late goals recently that it may happen again.
"But we've asked for sheer bloody-mindedness, I spoke about keeping the ball out of the net and I think we put our bodies on the line.
"We had a couple of chances to get that third one, and I thought we needed that goal, but we're talking about a 96-minute game. We wanted determination and we wanted three points and we've got that."
Reading manager Veljko Paunovic told BBC Radio Berkshire:
"I believe it was a disappointing result, but the team showed cohesion today and I believe in the second half, especially in attack, there were a lot of chances and a lot of determination and forward passes.
"It's something we didn't have in the last game and I believe that shows that the team is coming back together, but on the other side defensively I think we committed mistakes that we immediately have to eradicate if we want to win games.
"It's a mental situation and any setback affects the team, but second half we recomposed and we were close today to getting at least one point, and I'm very disappointed that didn't happen."
On his future as Reading manager: "If it depends on me, I'm going to be here, I'm going to keep fighting. Whenever the time comes to an end I'll know that I gave my best."