Reading took a step towards Championship safety after Josh Laurent’s wonder strike gave them three points against promotion battling Blackburn Rovers.
With 78 minutes on the clock, the Royals midfielder curled a beautiful effort beyond the reach of Thomas Kaminksi to hit the winning goal.
The Royals had several chances throughout the first-half but couldn’t break the resilience of Rovers’ keeper Thomas Kaminski.
The second-half told a different story as Reading had plenty of defending to do and had to thank goalkeeper Orjan Nyland who came up with two excellent saves to keep a clean sheet on his home debut, before Laurent;s goal gave them all three points.
Paul Ince named an unchanged team from Reading’s draw at Bournemouth in midweek.
Orjan Nyland kept his number one shirt to make his home debut andJohn Swift returned to the bench, whie the Royals nmed a full senior bench for the first time this season including Yakou Meite and Scott Dann.
Meanwhile, Blackburn were without their top scorer Ben Breteton Diaz who has scored 20 Championship goals to help Rovers’ promotion push.
Blackburn had the better of the ball in the early proceedings without creating much in the way of chances.
They often looked to play fast and direct into the box to find the aerial threat of Sam Gallagher in the box.
The first good chance came for Rovers after 13 minutes when Ryan Giles got into the box on the left hand side and fired a cross-shot that drifted wide of Nyland’s far post.
The Royals responded instantly with an even clearer opening, After some nice link up down the left from Ovie Ejaria and Tom McIntyre, the Reading defender clipped a ball into the box that was excellently taken down by Tom Ince who tried to then knock the ball past the keeper, but Thomas Kaminski made a smart save.
Reading grew into the half and had by far the better chances to break the deadlock.
After a long ball found Ovie Ejaria, he cut it back for Joao who shifted it onto Andy Yiadom who forced another important stop at the near post from Kaminski with a powerful hit,
Ince was forced into an early change as Andy Rinomohta had to go off with injury and was replaced by Swift.
Swift’s influence on the game made an immediate impact to quicken the pace of Reading’s attack and a big chance fell the way of Joao he headed down an inswinging cross, but couldn’t direct it either side of the keeper who parried it out.
Ejaria closed down a short back pass and tried to knock the ball past Kaminski, but the Rovers keeper made a vitally timed tackle and did well not to give away a penalty after being put in jeopardy by his defence.
Kaminski was called into action once again to make a super stop after Swift brilliantly flicked the ball in the path of Josh Laurent who blasted an effort at goal only to be thwarted.
The final chance of the half came for Joao who opened up on his right foot and tried to bend the ball inside the far post but missed the target by a few inches.
Rovers created a chance within 30 seconds of the restart when TyrhysDolan was released on the right, but he spurned the opportunity to test Nyland with a wayward hit.
Galllagher then had a sight of goal not long after that he smacked well wide.
The hosts continued to be frustrated by Kaminski who pulled off another excellent stop by getting down low to his left to get a glove to Tom McIntyre’s low drive that looked destined for the bottom corner.
Nyland then had to be alert at the other end when he flew to his left to reach John Buckley’s strike to tip it over his crossbar to prevent Rovers going in front.
Blackburn dominated proceedings for much of the second-half in hope of finding a goal to strengthen their promotion push.
They came close when Bradley Dack broke through one-on-one, but Nyland got in the way to make his second pivotal save of the game before Morrison hacked clear any danger of Blackburn latching onto the rebound.
Ince’s second change of the match saw Junior Hoilett replace Ejaria for the final 15 minutes.
With just over10 minutes to go, Reading broke the deadlock when Laurent hit a wonderful strike to beat Kaminski.
The midfielder picked up the ball from range and hit a beauty that curled into the top corner.
Reading face a huge relegation six pointer after the international break away at Barnsley on Saturday, April 2.
Reading: Nyland, Yiadom, Morrison (c), Holmes, McIntyre, Laurent, Drinkwater, Rinomhota, Ejaria, Ince, Joao
Subs: Southwood, Dann, Dele-Bashiru, Swift, Barker, Hoilett, Meite
Blackburn: Kaminski, Lenihan (c), Van Hecke, Wharton, Giles, Travis, Rothwell, Buckley, Khadra, Dolan, Gallagher,
Subs: Pears, Brown, Pickering, Johnson, Rankin-Costello, Dack, Hedges
Goals: Laurent 78’
