ISN’T FOR CHRIS
Brighton boss lets keeper Stockdale off the hook
Hemed a strike at goal, while the same player went even closer soon after, but Royals goalkeeper Ali AlHabsi produced a smart stop to prevent his flicked header at the near post from a corner finding the back of the net.
But from their next opportunity shorty after the restart, the Seagulls nudged themselves in front through a goal of real quality.
Working the ball down the left, a neat interchange of first-time passing between Bruno Saltor, Sam Baldock and Hemed carved the Reading defence wide open, with the latter racing on to fire low across the face of goal, where Murphy stroked the ball home.
The strike, however, appeared to galvanise the hosts, and they immediately went close to equalising through Michael Hector, but Liam Rosenior threw his body in front of the effort and Brighton survived.
Blackman drew another decent stop from Stockdale having wriggled his way through the Albion defence and Williams sent another effort over the bar.
But just as though it looked like it was not going to be their afternoon, Vydra popped up to net his first goal for Reading since a summer loan switch from Watford, with boss Clarke hoping it will lead to many more.
Clarke said: “It is good for him. He is sharp and that is why we brought him in, and it was very good to get him in.
“They say when you are a a striker and not scoring you are not doing well for the team, but that is not always the case.
“It was a big goal and I hope he will score many more times amd I’m sure he will. I think at 1-0 down going into the last 15 minutes it becomes a very decent point against a very good team.”