Reading vs Cardiff City. Sky Bet Championship.
Select Car Leasing StadiumAttendance19,039.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Reading and Cardiff City at the Select Car Leasing Stadium as goals from Alfie Doughty and Will Vaulks sealed a comeback win for the Bluebirds.
Saturday 9 April 2022 18:38, UK
Reading remain in the Championship relegation scrap after they squandered a first-half lead and lost 2-1 to Cardiff.
Striker Lucas Joao put the Royals ahead in the seventh minute when he nodded home an Andy Yiadom cross at the far post.
Cardiff were poor in the first half but levelled in the 59th minute when Alfie Doughty curled in from just inside the home area.
Substitute Will Vaulks then secured the win when he drove in from close range five minutes from the end.
Reading had taken eight points from their previous four outings, including successive home victories over Blackburn and Stoke, to open up an eight-point cushion over the relegation zone.
Cardiff's four-game unbeaten run had come to a shuddering halt in their 4-0 home loss to Welsh rivals Swansea last Saturday.
Reading opened strongly, with Josh Laurent seeing a shot blocked by the packed Cardiff defence.
As the ball ran free, Joao was unable to find space for a shot and was eventually crowded out.
Soon, though, Reading were ahead. Yiadom slung over a lofted cross from the right flank for Joao at the far post. Joao rose powerfully to nod past Cardiff keeper Dillon Phillips for his seventh goal of the season.
Reading kept up the pressure and, from an inswinging John Swift free-kick, Joao went close with a glancing header.
Cardiff finally managed to break forward, with Jordan Hugill twice finding himself with decent opportunities.
First he narrowly failed to get on the end of an excellent low cross from Rubin Colwill then soon after, Hugill's speculative 20-yarder flew just over the home crossbar.
Reading quickly regained their control, with only a defensive deflection denying Tom Ince as he tried to latch on to a Junior Hoilett cross.
Swift then should have done better when through alone but Phillips made a good stop by diving at his feet to gather possession.
Reading began positively after the interval, with another Joao header - from another Yiadom cross - deflected behind by Perry Ng.
Cardiff replied with their best move of the game as Joe Ralls centred from the left wing and Colwill made a good run to the near post but his first-time effort was palmed away by home keeper Orjan Nyland.
Hoilett nodded wide from yet another Yiadom cross but Cardiff's growing enterprise reaped its reward just before the hour mark.
Ralls released Doughty and the midfielder cut in from the right before curling a clever left-footed shot past Nyland.
Reading pushed forward looking to regain their advantage but it was Cardiff who secured the victory.
Tommy Doyle slipped the ball through for Vaulks to calmly beat the onrushing Nyland.
Reading interim manager Paul Ince: "We should have been 3-0 up at half-time. We had two great chances when we were 1-0 up. Had we taken those, it could have made the game a little bit easier for us. A bit more comfortable. We're not just talking about chances, we're talking about golden chances. We need to be more ruthless.
"As I said to the lads at half-time, we played really well in the first 45 minutes. But when you get chances like that, you've got to take them. Then you make the afternoon a lot more comfortable for you. In the second half, we suddenly decided to drop deep. I'm not really sure why we decided to do that. We needed a few leaders to get people up the park."
Cardiff's Steve Morison: "You're not safe until you're mathematically safe but we are now so it's job done. We're not going to go up and we're not going to go down. That's a nice feeling. "We had a good reaction from the start of the game. I asked them to carry out a certain way of playing and they did that from start to finish. When we went in at half-time, I said to them: 'Well done'. There was absolutely nothing wrong from the first half apart from the Reading goal.
"We kept playing and we kept believing. We got braver and braver as the second half went on. I think Reading had only one shot on target in the second half. We dominated the game with the ball and got our just rewards with two really good goals. We had a bad performance last week [losing 4-0 at home to Swansea] but we've only lost one in six. That's the reality. It was an emotionally draining game today after an emotionally draining week."
