Goals from Callum Connolly and Joe Garner have given Town a 2-0 lead against Reading at Portman Road at half-time. Connolly struck on three and Garner added the second in the 27th minute.

Garner returned to the Town starting line-up with the Blues otherwise unchanged from the team which lost 2-0 at Middlesbrough last week.

The former Rangers man, a sub at the Riverside, returned to his usual lone striker’s role in Town’s now familiar 4-2-3-1 system with Martyn Waghorn moving back into the position vacated by Emyr Huws, who is out for the season having undergone knee surgery on Thursday.

David McGoldrick was back on the bench having recovered from the gash to his groin he suffered in the Sheffield Wednesday match last month.

Reading made one change with Tyler Blackett replacing Liam Kelly, who dropped to the bench.

The Blues went ahead via the first attack of the game in the third minute. Connolly won the ball just inside the Town half and fed Bersant Celina, who broke into space before playing into the feet of Waghorn to his left.

The club’s 10-goal top scorer deftly turned it into the path of the breaking Connolly, who struck a low shot to Reading keeper Vito Mannone’s right from the edge of the box and into the net.

The on-loan Everton man’s third goal for the Blues - all in the last four games - once again came early on like his previous strikes, scored in the fifth and seventh minutes.

Town weren’t too far away from a second soon after going ahead, Waghorn finding space but shooting wide of the Mannone’s right post.

Mo Barrow picked up the game’s first yellow card for dissent having been penalised for a foul, then on 10 Leandro Bacuna joined him in referee Peter Bankes’s book also for protesting, unusually having just been awarded a freekick for a foul by Skuse, the Royals’ players having spent much of the opening spell chipping away and surrounding the referee.

Reading started to dominate possession, as is their usual approach under Dutch manager Jaap Stam, and on 16 Chris Gunter crossed from the right and Yann Kermorgant laid back to Sone Aluko, who struck a shot which flew narrowly wide.

The visitors were making significant headway down the Town left and on 18 Gunter was sent away in space and cut across to Dave Edwards, whose goalbound shot was diverted wide by the sliding Jordan Spence.

On 23 Barrow was played in on the Reading left and sent over a low cross towards Kermorgant but Adam Webster made an important interception and slid behind.

The Blues had found themselves under pressure having gone ahead but on 26 Spence made a strong run forward to the edge of the box and eventually Ward, who had switched to the left with Celina moving to the right presumably to help negate Gunter’s threat, struck a shot which deflected over the bar.

And from the corner, the Blues doubled their lead. Waghorn whipped the ball over, Webster flicked it on at the near post and Garner powerfully nodded his sixth goal of the season into the net from six yards.

After Cole Skuse had undergone lengthy treatment for what looked to be a knee problem following a challenge with Blackett, Waghorn was booked for a foul on one-time Town trialist Joey van den Berg.

Reading continued to dominate possession with the Blues remaining resolute in defence. A 36th-minute Van den Berg shot was blocked, then Liam Moore's overhead kick was cleared.

In the 40th minute Waghorn sent over a cross from the left after a short corner and the ball appeared to be diverted over the bar by a Reading player ahead of Webster but referee Bankes gave a goalkick.

Town began to see more of the ball as the half moved into injury time. Connolly might have made it 3-0 after Waghorn touched the ball to him from Garner’s low cross, but the ball came too quickly to the England U20 international and he was unable to get it under control.

Waghorn went close again just before the break, smashing over after a loose ball had fallen to him on the edge of the box.

Just before the whistle, Bacuna shot over from 20 yards with Webster grounded with what appeared to be an arm injury, the ex-Portsmouth man eventually able to continue to half-time.

The Blues will have been delighted with their half’s work. Having got their noses in front via Connolly’s increasingly familiar early goal, they sat back and were able to repel everything the Royals threw at them - if not always entirely comfortably - with Bartosz Bialkowski not forced to make a save.

Town had made little headway on the break until the very impressive Spence’s counter-attack led to the corner which yielded Garner’s goal.

Reading continued to dominate in the spell after Town’s second but as the break approached the Blues had seen more and more of the ball and were pushing for a third.

Town: Bialkowski, Spence, Chambers (c), Webster, Knudsen, Skuse, Connolly, Ward, Waghorn, Celina, Garner. Subs: M Crowe, Iorfa, T Smith, Bishop, McGoldrick, Sears, Bru.

Reading: Mannone, Gunter, McShane (c), Moore, Blackett, Van den Berg, Edwards,, Bacuna, Barrow, Aluko, Kermorgant. Subs: Jaakola, Beerens, Ilori, Clement, Bodvarsson, Kelly, Richards. Peter Bankes (Liverpool).

Photo: TWTD

martin587 added 16:11 - Dec 16 Being outplayed,but I will take the score.😊
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