READING suffered a miserable home defeat to struggling Wigan Athletic who closed the gap on the Royals after goals from Kieffer Moore, Jamal Lowe and Michael Jacobs.
Moore opened the scoring in the 24th minute with a spectacular back-heel volley before Lowe smashed a second past Rafael in the second half to gift the visitors a much needed three points in their battle against relegation.
The defeat drags Reading into the relegation fight, where despite being 16th in the Championship, they are now just five points away from the relegation zone.
The Royals came into the game on the back of a defeat to promotion pushing Leeds United, while Wigan were looking to climb their way out of the relegation zone.
The evening began with a minute’s applause for Reading legend Jimmy Wheeler, who sadly passed away last week at the age of 86.
The action got off to a tepid start after Reading’s first chance to get in behind the Wigan defence was halted by the referee’s whistle after Sam Baldock was deemed to have committed a foul after some intense pressing on the halfway line.
The Latics tried to find their way behind the Royals defence with a direct long ball punted up field towards Keiffer Moore, but Rafael charged off his line to beat the Wigan forward to the ball to avert any danger.
A slow start to the game saw both sides lacking any creative drive or urgency when getting forward, with Reading’s forwards feeding off scraps as Yakou Meite tried to latch on to a dropped cross by Wigan keeper David Marshall, but was beaten to the ball by a defender.
Joe Williams saw his low drive tipped around the post by Rafael before Jamal Lowe hit a shot comfortably over the bar from the resulting corner.
After a quiet opening 24 minutes, Wigan broke the deadlock with a quite remarkable goal. Moore adjusted his body brilliantly to connect with a cross as he guided the ball into the bottom corner with a superbly executed back-heel volley.
A goal so impressive from the Wigan striker, that it was applauded by some sections of the home crowd.
The Reading fans continued to vent their frustrations at their teams lacklustre approach, with chances for the Royals lacking as Baldock was prevented from getting a shot away at goal by a smart last ditch sliding tackle.
Andy Yiadom and Pele both picked up yellow cards towards the end of the half for mistimed tackles as the visitors went into the break with a one goal lead following a dreadful opening 45 minutes from the hosts.
After a dire first-half, Bowen made two switches at the break, bringing Charlie Adam and Michael Olise on for Pele and Felipe Araruna.
Having taken a whole half to have a shot, Reading finally registered their first shot of the game early in the second half as substitute Olise fired over the bar from 25 yards.
Despite the changes, Reading’s fortunes didn’t improve as they struggled to find any cutting edge going forward.
Their misery was compounded when Wigan found a second goal in the 67th minute. Lowe took a smart first touch before dispatching the ball past Rafael into the corner to double the Latics advantage.
The chances continued to come few and far between as John Swift lofted a 25-yard free kick well over the bar with less than 20 minutes of the contest remaining.
Reading pressed to try and find a way back into the game as Swift latched onto a cleared Adam cross in the box but his shot was tipped over the bar by Marshall.
Wigan tried to find a third from a 25-yard free-kick which Rafael pushed away from goal from Lee Evans’ strike.
Marshall had to make a stunning double save with just five minutes remaining to preserve his sides clean sheet as he pushed away a powerful drive from Adam before saving from Baldock’s close range rebound.
Baldock then blazed a chance over the bar from inside the box as the Royals surrendered their final chance of the game.
Wigan completed a miserable evening for the Royals as they added a third in stoppage time through Michael Jacobs who neatly dinked the ball over Rafael
The Royals face another relegation threatened side on Saturday as they host Barnsley in a must win game to ease any relegation fears.
Attendance: 10,088
Visitors: 177
Reading: Rafael, Yiadom, Morrison, Moore (c), Richards, Pele, Araruna, Swift, Ejaria, Meite, Baldock.
Subs: Walker, Rinomhota, Olise, Blackett, Ayub Masika, Adam, Puscas.
Wigan: Marshall, Morsy (c), Byrne, Roberts, Lowe, Massey, Williams, Pearce, Balogun, Kipre, Moore.
Subs: Gyollai, Dunkley, Evans, Jacobs, Pilkington, Mlakar, Garner.
Goals: Moore 24′, Lowe 67′, Jacobs 90+9′
