Derby 0-2 Reading

On-loan Kitson helped Reading to an important victory

Second-half goals from Dave Kitson and Shane Long saw Reading leapfrog Burnley and Cardiff into fourth and send Derby crashing to their third straight loss.

Long had a goal disallowed for offside and Kitson's bullet header was ruled out for the same reason.

Reading opened the scoring when Jimmy Kebe crossed from the left for Kitson to head beyond Stephen Bywater.

Derby were unable to respond and the lead was doubled when Long broke the offside trap to slot past Bywater.

Derby boss Nigel Clough:
"We've never been out of the relegation battle, so we're still in it.

"We were beaten by a better side, a good all-round team and an experienced side that have been together a while.

"It's really irrelevant what's happened in the last 44 games or 18 months, it's just about Saturday now."

Reading boss Steve Coppell:
"I'm not saying we can relax but you feel as if the cloud isn't following you around so much.

"I've being saying for a few games what we needed was a performance and a result and I do believe we got both.

"The boys stuck at it, tried to play and I must say the surface was a delight for us to play on."

Derby: Bywater, Connolly, Albrechtsen, Nyatanga, Todd (Pearson 80), Varney, Savage, Bannan, Teale, Hulse (Villa 83), Commons (Barazite 89).
Subs Not Used: Price, Sterjovski.

Booked: Bannan.

Reading: Hahnemann, Rosenior, Bikey (Pearce 87), Duberry, Harding, Little (Stephen Hunt 75), Karacan, Tabb, Kebe (Matejovsky 89), Kitson, Long.
Subs Not Used: Federici, Cisse.

Goals: Kitson 56, Long 73.

Att: 31,345

Ref: Colin Webster (Tyne & Wear).

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