Jon Dadi put Harry’s troops on back foot
ROYALS striker Jon Dadi Bodvarsson rescued the game from the doldrums with the opening goal to set up victory at Birmingham.
St Andrew’s is obviously a ground which appeals to the Reading player – he scored one of only three goals in his 42 Wolves appearances last season in the match at City.
Harry Redknapp’s Blues only surged back to life after the Iceland international notched the first goal on the hour.
But they left themselves open for substitute George Evans to seal the game with an 85th-minute strike for Jaap Stam’s men.
The result will be a disappointment for Redknapp, who is still busy restructuring his side and drafted in another two newcomers in Carl Jenkinson and Sam Gallagher.
Unfortunately Jenkinson, on loan from Arsenal, sustained a wrist injury in the 31st minute and took no further part in the game.
Gallagher – another temporary recruit from Southampton – demonstrated his threat early in the game when he chested down a long pass from Michael Morrison only to see his shot blocked by Joey van den Berg.
Following a slow build-up, Reading posed the most danger when Tyler Blackett fired in a low shot through a packed defence, only to see David Stockdale dive low to his left to push the ball away.
A dour stalemate was broken in the 60th minute when Blackett produced the cross from the left which Bodvarsson headed into the roof of the net.
Birmingham belatedly showed signs of life and Gallagher and David Davis had efforts blocked.
But they were condemned to defeat as Evans was set up by Garath McCleary to make it 2-0 five minutes from time.
Redknapp said: “We’re short of quality. We bring a right-back in and lose him after 20 minutes. If we don’t have a good next few days in the transfer market it’s going to be a long, hard season.”
Stam said: “We deserved the win. Of course, we can still identify areas where we can be better. But throughout we created opportunities.”