Premier League: Aston Villa secure points in basement battle against Reading

Aston Villa climbed out of the Premier League relegation zone thanks to a 2-1 victory against fellow strugglers Reading at the Madejski Stadium.

Post-match reaction

After the match Paul Lambert insisted that his team don't look a side that are fighting for their lives. He said: The lads were fantastic today. I thought we deserved to win and some of the play was absolutely brilliant. The second goal was fantastic. "The confidence was always there and if you look at it today, it's not as if they're a team that look as though they're fighting for their lives. "We've got a lot of confidence about us at the minute and a lot of enthusiasm for the game. They're young and they've got a great hunger to go and succeed." Meanwhile, his opposite number McDermott felt his Reading team shot themselves in the foot, despite taking the lead at home. He told Sky Sports: "It's so disappointing. We took the lead and I thought we were good value for it. I thought we were going to kick on, but we shot ourselves in the foot. "We've given two goals away just before half-time and that's something we need to learn from. It was a real body blow. "We have to take this defeat on the chin and we must learn that when you get yourself into a lead in this division, you have to capitalise on that but we certainly didn't do that today."