Blackburn Rovers vs Reading. Sky Bet Championship.
Ewood Park.
Report and highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash at Ewood Park
Tuesday 27 October 2020 23:05, UK
Yakou Meite scored unbeaten Reading's fastest-ever competitive goal to extend their lead at the top of the Championship to seven points with an impressive 4-2 win at Blackburn.
The Ivorian capitalised on good fortune to score after only eight seconds - his third in two games - before in-form Adam Armstrong guided home a beautiful equaliser two minutes later.
Much was made of Blackburn's potent attack against Reading's mean defence before the game but Veljko Paunovic's men highlighted their own dangerous forward line with a blistering start that saw them net another two before the 19th minute through Michael Olise and Josh Laurent's first Royals goal.
Tony Mowbray's side were given hope in the 66th minute through Armstrong's glancing header but the visitors had the final say courtesy of former Rover Lucas Joao, who capped a fine individual performance with a composed finish eight minutes from time.
It is now seven wins in eight league games for Reading, who made it two consecutive Ewood Park defeats for Blackburn for the first time since March 2019.
Aynsley Pears made his debut in place of the injured Thomas Kaminski for Blackburn, while Joao was drafted in for Reading.
The Royals were ahead early when a long ball struck the heels of Barry Douglas and fell invitingly to Joao who squared for Meite and he had the simplest task of tapping into an empty net.
Blackburn hit back two minutes later through Armstrong's sumptuous half-volley to convert Harvey Elliott's cross and breach Reading's defence for only the second time this season.
But Reading underlined their ambitions with two goals in the space of four ruthless minutes. They regained the lead in the 15th minute, and it was too easy for Olise, who easily glided past Derrick Williams before clinically slotting into the bottom-right corner.
They made it three in the 18th minute when Omar Richards ghosted past Joe Rankin-Costello. His cross was cleared only as far as Laurent who had time to curl beautifully beyond the dive of Pears and in off the post from 20 yards.
Rafael Cabral made a sharp save just before the break to deny Armstrong a second, thwarting his close-range header, and just after half-time, Douglas sent in a searching low cross that just evaded Blackburn's talisman.
He got his rewards midway through the half with a brilliant, glancing header to guide home Rankin-Costello's curling cross to net his 10th goal of a prolific season and give the hosts hope of a salvage job.
Cabral made a flying save to deny Lewis Holtby but Joao extinguished all hopes of a comeback late on with a composed run and finish, curling beyond the reach of Pears to extend Reading's dream start.
Blackburn's Tony Mowbray: "I think their forwards were pretty good tonight. We recognised that this week and we had to obviously perform better defensively than we did. There were a lot of positives for us, but I think you can't defend like we did, as our defenders did tonight.
"Fell a bit short, I think. Lacked a bit of confidence against the physicality they were playing against and the deeper they dropped because of that physicality didn't help our team, playing as we play. We were much better second half. Genuinely felt the first time they crossed the halfway line in the second half they scored, which was 30-odd minutes in. Lots of positives. I think we can score goals, we're a threat, and yet we didn't handle their strikers tonight."
Reading's Veljko Paunovic: "I feel very, very proud of the guys, especially because of this fantastic game and performance came at this monument of football. This stadium is very known and to me, since I was young and dreaming about playing one day here. But now as a coach and coming here first time and winning with a fantastic team and spirit that we have in our group, it's unique.
"And that uniqueness is something we want to keep fostering and cultivating. So far, it's been fantastic. I'm full of gratitude to this group. When you look individually, everyone had a fantastic game. Today, I would give the best note to the whole team individually and as a team. I think it's the most complete performance so far."
