Reading of England winger, Ovie Ejaria was in top form for The Royals on an evening they took their promotion hope a step higher with victory over Coventry City in the English Championship, megasportsarena.com reports.
Although the former Golden Eaglets invitee failed to score in the home fixture, he came pretty close to registering his name on the scorers’ cards early in the game and later on won a foul from which his teammate scored to put the icing on his side’s win.
While fellow-Nigerian-born lad, Michael Olise had a quiet game this time out, Ejaria was constantly found in the highlights, as Reading, unbeaten in three league games, started well and pushed forward promisingly along the left flank.
The Championship play-off contenders strengthened their top-six position with a comfortable 3-0 victory over 10-man Coventry, after going ahead in the 16th minute when top scorer Lucas Joao slotted home his 17th goal of the season from close range.
Twice they were awarded free-kicks in dangerous positions outside the Coventry area but on each occasion, though, the set-piece delivery from Swift was poor and the opportunities went unrewarded.
Coventry should have gone ahead in the 14th minute when right-back Leo Ostigard found space to meet a clever Sam McCallum cross. But the Norwegian totally lost his bearings and glanced a weak header wide from only a few yards out.
Two minutes later, Reading went ahead. Swift sent a long searching pass to Joao, who dazzled in the Coventry box before thundering a shot past goalkeeper Ben Wilson and Reading almost doubled their advantage when Ejaria jinked past several challenges only to strike Wilson’s near post from a narrow angle.
Joao twice had decent openings before the break but failed to add to his impressive tally, with memories agog of how Coventry, with a 3-2 victory at St Andrew’s in October, had ended Reading’s eight-match unbeaten start to the season.
However, this time out, they showed little in the first half of the reverse fixture, most of their approach work lacking penetration at the crucial moments and, within 30 seconds of the restart, they found themselves 2-0 down.
Joao crossed from the right and Rinomhota drove home a fine left-footed shot that sped past Wilson. On his 100th appearance for the club, it was the holding midfielder’s fourth goal – and first this season.
Coventry tried to respond positively but McFadzean pulled down Ejaria and saw red for picking up his second yellow in only 11 minutes, from which Swift delivered a fierce strike that served to rubberstamp Reading’s growing promotion credentials.
