Relieved Reading manager knew if his side scored once against Peterborough United there would soon be an opportunity to score again

Peterborough United players cut frustrated figures after conceding the second goal of the game at Reading. Photo: Joe Dent/theposh.com.

The Royals started the night at the Select Car Leasing Stadium level on points with Posh, but three second-half goals sealed a 3-1 win for the injury-ravaged home side.

A second win of the season, to follow a home draw with QPR, lifted Reading to 15th.

“I must say, it was a relief, especially as we have been punished severely in the past few games,” Paunovic told the Reading press after the game. “Sometimes it felt like everything was going against us. We needed to turn the wheel forward.

“In the last game we stopped it going backwards and now we are turning it forward.

“The first half was mature and pretty solid. We played safe and were making progress towards the final third. In the second half, we got the edge to push forward and conviction to open the scoring. We also said once we scored a goal, there was a chance to score another.

“The team did very well in those moments, being ruthless, on the front foot and keeping pushing forward. Until then we had the game under control.”