READING FC’s away day blues continued after they conceded another late goal on the road after Romaine Sawyers won the game for Cardiff City in stoppage time.
It was deja vu Paul Ince’s men who lost to a late Sunderland goal last weekend and suffered the same fate in Cardiff.
After a drab contest, which saw the Royals fail to register a single shot on target, they were made to pay in stoppage time.
Sawyers drilled a shot into the ground that flew past a number of Reading corners to fly into the bottom corner.
The defeat leaves Reading in 15th position in the Championship table.
Reading went into the game on the back of their late win over Rotherham United in the week.
Without suspended captain Andy Yiadom, there were plenty of changes made by Paul Ince.
Mamadou Loum returned to the team while Nesta Guinness-Waker, Tyrese Fornah and Femi Azeez were all rewarded for their impactful performances from the bench against Rotherham.
Jeff Hendrick missed out through illness, while Tom Ince dropped to the bench due to fatigue.
Former Reading midfielder Andy Rinomhota featured on Cardiff’s bench, as did Connor Wickham, who spent pre-season on trial with the Royals.
With swirling wind and rain making its way through the Cardiff City Stadium, the Bluebirds were looking to turn their fortunes around under Sabri Lamouchi having not won at home since October.
Meanwhile, Reading have been notoriously poor on the road and have suffered the most defeats and conceded the most goals of any team in the division on their travels.
The first warning sign for the Royals defence came when Jaden Philogene dug out a pinpoint cross to the back post to pick out Sort Kaba, but he missed the target from close range.
Another cross shortly after fell for Kaba and he glanced a header on target this tie, but it caused no trouble for Joe Lumley who made a routine catch.
The Royals stopper then made a save at his near post after Kion Etete ran off the back of Scott Dann to get into the box.
It was all Cardiff in the opening 20 minutes as another chance came and went for Kaba.
A whipped free-kick missed a host of bodies before finding its way to the back post for Kaba who headed over from point blank range.
Reading’s first attempt came through Tom McIntyre who beat Carroll to Junior Hoilett’s cross only to head high over the bar.
Dann received the first booking of the match after tugging the shirt of Etete who was looking to latch onto a through ball.
Looking to repeat his magic from midweek, Perry NG went agonisingly close with a whipped free-kick that curled into the side netting.
Mark McGuinness was next to go in the box after going high on Amadou Mbengue with a reckless tackle and could count himself fortunate to stay on the pitch.
Despite the home team’s dominance throughout the first-half, the teams went into half-time level.
Reading started the second-half by winning a couple of corners in quick succession. They were unable to take advantage of the set pieces after Mamadou Loum’s diving header was wayward.
Wickham entered the action for the hosts with half an hour left with the scoreline yet to be breached.
Ince responded with a change of his own which saw Yakou Meite replace Azeez.
The next change saw Tom Ince called from the bench to try and inspire his side in attack. He replaced Fornah.
Meite almost made an instant impact when Cardiff keeper Ryan Allsop took his eye off the ball with a swing and a miss, but the Ivorian couldn’t quite manage to capitalise and divert the ball into the net.
The Bluebirds went closest to finding a breakthrough when Callum Robinson played a neat one, two and watched his curling effort crash off the post.
Lamouchi’s side were denied by the woodwork again just a few minutes later when Sheyi Ojo’s shot took a nick off Mbengue and bounced off the top of the crossbar.
With five minutes of added time signalled on the board, the Bluebirds struck gold when Sawyers’ low drive
Next up for the Royals is a home match against relegation battlers Blackpool at the Select Car Leasing Stadium next Saturday.
Cardiff City: Allsop, Ng, Kiprem McGuinness, O’Dowda, Philogene, Sawyers, Wintle, Robinson, Kaba, Etete
Subs: Romeo, Ralls, Ojo, Alnwick, Simpson, Wickham, Rinomhota
Reading: Lumley, Mbengue, Dann, Sarr, Hoilett, Guinness-Walker, Loum, McIntyre, Fornah, Azeez, Carroll (c)
Subs: Ince, Meite, Casadei, Bouzanis, Abbey, Ehibhatiomhan, Senga-Ngoyi
Goals: Sawyers 90+1′
