John Madejski celebrated his eighteenth anniversary as the Reading chairman last night by watching his team come from behind to beat Coventry City. Reading were about to go out of business when Madejski rescued his local club in 1990 and the millionaire businessman is determined that they will return to the Barclays Premier League at the first attempt after they lost their top-flight status in May.

Wolverhampton Wanderers and Birmingham City set the pace in the Coca-Cola Championship but Reading kept in the race for an automatic promotion place thanks to two goals by Noel Hunt and a cool finish by Kalifa Cissé. “It was a hard-earned victory,” Steve Coppell, the Reading manager, said. “They changed their shape to play against us and that made it difficult.”

Daniel Fox scored the best goal of the night when he gave Coventry the lead in the 25th minute with a long-range free kick, but he was involved in a confrontation with Shane Long in the closing seconds. Television replays showed Fox catching the Reading substitute in the face with a raised hand. “It happens,” Coppell said. “It was in front of the dugout and I just saw Shane hit the ground. He wasn’t very happy, but he’s all right. The most important thing is that we won.”

Coventry were in front for only six minutes. Hunt was first to get to the ball when Liam Rosenior whipped in a cross from the right, but his header needed a looping deflection off Fox to beat Keiren Westwood, the Coventry goalkeeper.

Reading took the lead after 36 minutes when Rosenior’s clever pass released Jimmy Kébé, who cut the ball back for Cissé to score. Hunt increased Reading’s lead in the 61st minute when he took advantage of a mistake by Marcus Hall to tap in a low cross from his older brother, Stephen.

“We’ve got some good young players,” Chris Coleman, the Coventry manager, said, “but Reading look like a Premier League side.”

Reading (4-4-2): M Hahnemann — L Rosenior, I Ingimarsson, M Duberry, C Armstrong — J Kébé (sub: J Henry, 85min), J Harper, K Cissé (sub: B Gunnarsson, 76), S Hunt — K Doyle, N Hunt (sub: S Long, 71). Substitutes not used: A Federici, M Matejovsky. Booked: S Hunt.

Coventry City (5-3-2): K Westwood — A Gunnarsson (sub: L Best, 58), S Dann, E Ward, M Hall, D Fox — G Beuzelin, M Doyle, J Tabb — C Morrison, F Eastwood (sub: M Mifsud, 76). Substitutes not used: A Marshall, B Turner, R Simpson. Booked: Gunnarsson

Referee: K Wright.