Reading 3-1 Peterborough United: Dele-Bashiru helps Royals earn first win in five

Two goals from Tom Dele-Bashiru helped earn Reading their first win in five games at the expense of Peterborough.

The Championship's top scorer John Swift lit up the game with an excellent free-kick to break the deadlock and send the hosts ahead after 64 minutes.

The Royals doubled their advantage three minutes later when Dele-Bashiru drilled home a low George Puscas cross.

Nathan Thompson headed in with 16 minutes left to give Posh hope, but Dele-Bashiru's second settled matters.

Both sides went into the game without a win in four matches and with the two worst defences in the league, with the visitors soaking up some early pressure.

Peterborough goalkeeper Christy Pym reacted well to save an early Dele-Bashiru effort, before the recalled Jonson Clarke-Harris wasted a good opening for the visitors when he could not beat the wall with a free-kick.

Royals keeper Luke Southwood, replacing regular stopper Rafael Cabral, was called into action on the stroke of half-time when he dived at full stretch to tip Oliver Norburn's long-range strike over the bar to ensure it remained level at the break.

After a quiet opening to the second period, Swift brought the game to life when he curled home a pin-point free-kick into the top corner from 25 yards.

It got better soon after when Dele-Bashiru collected Puscas' low cross to rifle home from the edge of the area and double the lead over the shell-shocked visitors.

But Posh responded well to going two goals down and pulled one back when Thompson rose highest from a free-kick to head past Southwood.

The Royals made the game safe when Dele-Bashiru collected a pass from Swift before hitting a thunderous shot past Pym.

Victory moves Reading up to 15th, while Peterborough remain second-bottom after losing their fourth game in a row.

Reading boss Veljko Paunovic told BBC Radio Berkshire:

"I'm happy with the performance. The most important thing was the result today and we got the result we needed. A lot of positives but also a lot of things to improve.

"We don't have time to dwell on this win it's just a great trigger for us to create momentum and an atmosphere within the group where we can chase success in the upcoming games, especially because we have proved we are capable of playing good football.

"It's progress, that's what we were looking for and it'll all get better."

Peterborough manager Darren Ferguson told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire:

"I thought we were the better team up until the hour mark.

"Our biggest problem at the moment, anyone can see, we've just got this terrible habit that when we concede, we concede again so quickly after. It's a big problem and something I need to root out somehow.

"I thought the first half was a bit cagy between two teams that maybe are lacking a bit of confidence, but then we grew into the game and I didn't feel too troubled by them at all.

"Then they get a free-kick and the boy scores and then a minute later it's 2-0 and you're thinking 'where has that come from', but that's where we are at the moment, unfortunately."