Brendan Rodgers oversaw his first victory as Reading manager after a 3-1 win at struggling Barnsley.
Hunt brace puts more pressure on Barnsley boss Davey
Brendan Rodgers oversaw his first Championship victory as Reading manager after Noel Hunt's second-half brace secured a 3-1 win at struggling Barnsley.
Bottom-of-the-table Barnsley took an 11th minute lead through Andy Gray's first goal for the club, but Alex Pearce equalised just before the half-hour mark.
Hunt put Reading ahead from the penalty spot on 53 minutes and just 60 seconds later the Irish striker scored again to pile the pressure on Tykes boss Simon Davey.
In blustery conditions in South Yorkshire the hosts were keen to get on the front foot and dominated the opening exchanges and forged into the lead in just the 11th minute.
Jon Macken did well to force a corner and when Hugo Colace whipped his delivery into the near post, Gray, who was making his home debut, got in front of his marker and powered a header into the top corner.
Barnsley continued to press and chased a second goal. First Colace went close with a drilled effort and then Gray almost got his second when he charged down Adam Federici's kick, but the Reading goalkeeper was relieved to see the deflection bounce just wide of the post.
Shoddy defending
However, Reading hit back and the Tykes only had themselves to blame after some shoddy defending allowed the Berkshire side to score their first away goal of the season on 29 minutes.
After Luke Steele had tipped a Gylfi Sigurdsson free-kick around the post, chaos ensued from the resulting corner and when the home side wasted several chances to clear, Pearce turned the ball home to level.
Barnsley tried to reassert themselves and Jamal Campbell-Ryce fired wide, but Reading took a lot of confidence from their goal.
Then as the game entered the second half, Reading made the points safe with two goals in the space of two minutes. First, Steele hauled down Jimmy Kebe after a long ball had been held up in the wind and Hunt fired home the resulting spot-kick after 53 minutes.
With their next attack, the Royals breached the wayward Barnsley defence again when Kebe had time to pick out Hunt, who was completely unmarked, and the Irish striker had no problems heading home.
The Tykes were stunned by the quick-fire double and were unable to mount a serious attempt at getting back into the game, with Macken's blocked effort the nearest they came to testing Federici and the defeat was met by resounding boos from the home faithful.
