Preston 3-0 Reading: Tom Barkhuizen hits double for hosts

Tom Barkhuizen's double helped Preston secure a 3-0 win over Reading as their march towards the Sky Bet Championship play-offs continued.

The ex-Morecambe striker gave the Lilywhites the lead while Daryl Horgan doubled Preston's advantage before the break, and Barkhuizen added his second shortly after the restart.

Preston are now only six points off the top six and Barkhuizen has notched four goals in his last three appearances, while the Royals slipped to their third loss in five games.

Lewis Grabban tried his luck from 25 yards after five minutes with his dipping effort clipping the roof of Chris Maxwell's net. The lively Garath McCleary twisted and turned on the edge of the box to unleash a fierce 22nd-minute effort which stung Maxwell's palms as Reading continued pressing.

The Royals broke forward and McCleary back-heeled to John Swift who drove at the Preston rearguard and found Jordon Mutch who fired wide.

Championship Player of the Month, Aiden McGeady, turned in the box in the 28th minute and left Joey van den Berg in his wake to drill a low effort at Ali Al-Habsi.

And the Lilywhites took a 31st-minute lead when Horgan raced away from Tyler Blackett down the right and set up Barkhuizen who curled a sublime effort past Al-Habsi.

Barkhuizen helped Preston double their lead five minutes before the break after leading a counter-attack and teeing up Horgan whose first effort was blocked by Jordan Obita, but the Irishman tucked away the follow-up despite Al-Habsi's best efforts.

The rattled Royals nearly responded through McCleary, who blasted a stoppage-time effort from 30 yards that was too hot for Maxwell to handle. But Preston grabbed their third when Horgan's 49th-minute free-kick was headed across goal by Andy Boyle and Barkhuizen prodded home his second.

Grabban darted into the box and cut back for Yann Kermorgant but the striker was put off by Ben Pearson's challenge. Barkhuizen raced away down the left just before the hour and tried to find Jordan Hugill but Al-Habsi denied the opportunity.

It was nearly four for Preston when McGeady's free-kick floated over the Reading wall but just wide, while the Everton loanee's cross moments later missed a diving Hugill by inches.

A clever free-kick routine saw McGeady pass to Daniel Johnson who found Greg Cunningham to drill off target with 20 minutes remaining as Preston ran out comfortable victors.

Preston boss Simon Grayson:

I'm obviously delighted when you beat somebody who are in the play-off positions 3-0, keep a clean sheet, with very good individual performances and could have had a lot more goals if we'd taken our chances. I'm sure the lads would have liked a few more goals but you can't complain beating a team that have been in the play-offs for a long spell, who are certainly still going to be up there come the end of the season."

Reading boss Jaap Stam:

"By winning games like these and doing well against a team like this with the quality that they have, you need to be sharp, you need to be focused in everything which you do. Sometimes if you can't play nice or in a certain way that you want to do it, then just launch that ball into the stands. You need to be decisive and we don't do that and that's why we give goals away and we make it difficult for ourselves."