Second season syndrome could be defined as a club not needing to prove anything once they have survived their first campaign in the top flight. If that is true, Reading need not worry about suffering its symptoms because they have players with an antidote.

According to Steve Coppell, the Reading manager, Kevin Doyle, Shane Long and Stephen Hunt, his Ireland internationals, “have a really good mentality. It’s as if they have something to prove on a week-by-week basis.” Long and Doyle combined for Reading’s first goal and the home team benefited from the harrying and probing passing of Hunt.

Richard Dunne, the Manchester City central defender, tried to stop Hunt in his tracks and the visiting team were weakened when their captain was carried off on a stretcher with a shin wound. City were unlucky not to be awarded a penalty when Ivar Ingimarsson felled Michael Johnson, but the midfield player overegged his reaction and was booked for diving. Reading took control and City completed a run of three matches without scoring.

In the 88th minute, Dave Kitson collected Kalifa Cissé’s free kick to score Reading’s second. “Kits showed that he is probably the most gifted of them all here,” Coppell said.

Sven-Göran Eriksson, the City manager, was left to rue that referees cannot use television replays to rule on penalty decisions. “I spoke many times to Fifa about it,” he said. “But they will listen more to Sepp Blatter [the Fifa president, who is opposed to the technology] than to me.”

Reading (4-4-2): M Hahnemann 6 – L Rosenior 5, A Bikey 6, I Ingimarsson 6, N Shorey 7 – S Hunt 7, J Harper 5, M Matejovsky 6 (sub: K Cissé, 79min) J Oster 5 – S Long 7 (sub: D Kitson, 82), K Doyle 7. Substitutes not used: A Federici, J Kebe, I Sonko.
Next: Liverpool (a).

Manchester City (4-5-1): J Hart 5 – V Corluka 6, R Dunne 6 (sub: Sun Jihai, 31 6), M Ball 6, J Garrido 5 – Elano 5, G Fernandes 5, M Johnson 6, D Hamann 5 (sub: N Castillo, 67 5), D Vassell, 5 (sub: F Caicedo, 65 5) – Benjani Mwaruwari 5. Substitutes not used: K Schmeichel, S Ireland. Booked: Johnson, Hamann.
Next: Tottenham Hotspur (h).

Referee U Rennie

Attendance 24,062