Matchweek 16 saw Birmingham City away at third place Reading. Reading come into the game with a lot of confidence being the leagues second highest scorers.

Blues made no changes from last weeks win at Bristol, in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

The first half Blues started the game very brightly with high pressing not letting Reading start from the back. 14 minutes in Pedersen makes a darting run sliding Hogan in but his effort is blocked and ruled offside.

Blues continued to push from there. Pedersen again charges down the left flank and crosses the ball to the 18-yard box when Toral makes a tidy touch and low finish off the post and in. The bombardment continued as a downward header from Hogan was excellently stopped out for a corner. The following corner, the ball drops out to Leko who has a fine shot cleared off the line.

The hard work was again rewarded in the 36th minute when Toral found the ball on the right hand-side and bent in a lovely shot in swinging to the post to put the visitors up 2-0.

The second half unsurprisingly Reading started to push Blues more in search of that spark.

Blues managed the game very well and seemed in control. In the 60th minute, coming from nothing a released pass found Meite deflected shot in and the game was on. Minutes later Toral played Hogan through on goal who failed to scored one-on-one with the goalkeeper. A poor decision gave the home side a free-kick just outside the box booking Dean. The resulting free kick went just over the bar.

In the 70th minute Reading are given a soft penalty and Harlee Dean is shown his second yellow of the match putting us down to 10 men. Karma came as Neil Etheridge made a super save to stop Joao from scoring.

The remainder of the game Blues had no choice but to hold on. In the 96th minute Reading missed a huge chance as Joao chipped just wide.

It took 99 minutes for the ref to blow the whistle and Birmingham hold onto a fantastic win on the road, down a man. Back to back wins see’s Blues move up to 15th in the table.