95' FT: Birmingham City 2-1 Reading

94' Penalty! Missed by Sa!

90' Five minutes added on! Reading are pressing.

78' Controversy here as Aaron Tshibola's effort crashes against the underside of the bar and bounces on the line.

It looks like it might've bounced over the line but it's impossible to tell and the linesman is nowhere near the line to give it. 

Have Birmingham been let off the hook?

70' Reading are pushing here. They deserve an equaliser.

Paul McShane has headed against the bar and Danny Williams went close with a low, drilled effort. 20 minutes left to find an equaliser.

59' GOALLLL! Birmingham City 2-1 Reading FC.

Danny Williams' shot forces Tomasz Kusczak into a fine save and it falls to Chris Gunter. The fullback holds up a cross and Nick Blackman is there to head home.

Game on!

48' GOAL! Birmingham City 2-0 Reading FC

What a nightmare start to the second half for the Royals as they concede within three minutes of the restart. 

Clayton Donaldson's floated cross is headed into the bottom corner by Jon Toral and suddenly Reading have a mountain to climb.

The Birmingham tails are up now. Reading need to respond quickly if they're going to get anything from this game.

46' No changes at the break as Reading get us back underway...

HT Reading trail 1-0 at the break.

It's harsh but that's the Championship and Reading haven't created enough chances for the possession that they've had.

Orlando Sa is playing well up front but needs more support when he has the ball. A big team talk coming up for Steve Clarke as the goal rocked the Royals for a couple of minutes.

42' GOAL! Birmingham City 1-0 Reading.

David Cotterill opens the scoring and it's very harsh on the Royals, who don't deserve to be behind.

His 25-yard free-kick takes a cruel deflection and completely wrongfoots Jonathan Bond to nestle in the back of the net.

There's nothing the young keeper could've done about that but it's a bitter blow to Steve Clarke's side just moments before the break.

35' Corner to the Royals and Reading go close! 

Paul McShane pokes Oliver Norwood's corne towards goal and it's saved by Kuzscak, with the ball spilling to Aaron Tshibola. He's two yards out with an empty goal but a miraculous recovery tackle sees the ball cleared for another corner, which comes

What a chance for the Royals.

25' Reading look solid here. The home fans are starting to get a little frustrated. Orlando Sa is putting himself about up front and providing an outlet for the Royals. If they can start to fashion a couple of chances then all three points are here for the visitors.

15' It's been a good start by Reading. The majority of play has been in Birmingham's half and Jonathan Bond hasn't had anything to do.

Steve Clarke will be pleased with this so far.

5' CROSSBAR! Close for Reading as Oliver Norwood's 25-yard free-kick strikes the bar and goes over. So close from the midfielder. 

It was good work by Orlando Sa to win the free-kick after being bundled over as he was about to get a shot off. Encouraging start from Steve Clarke's men.

1' Birmingham get us underway...

14:58 The teams are out ...

14:45 The Reading players are going through the last of their paces in their 'african violet' shorts. Not long now until Steve Clarke's first full season in charge of the Royals gets underway. What he'd do for a winning start! URzzzzzzzzzzzz!

14:30 The players are out and going through their paces. It's only half hour until kick-off here and the away end is filling up nicely. 

14:00 The teams are in and the big news is that Paul McShane is named as captain for the Royals.

Steve Clarke has placed his faith in his new signing, dropping Anton Ferdinand from the team after a mightily impressive pre-season. 

Jonathan Bond gets the nod as number one for the Royals, whilst Orlando Sa starts up front.

Reading: Bond, Gunter, McShane, Hector, Obita; Tshibola, Norwood, Quinn, Willians, Blackman; Sa. Subs: AL-Habsi, A.Taylor, Ferdinand, J.Taylor, Cox, Samuel, Robson-Kanu.

Birmingham: Kuszccak; Grounds, Kieftennbeld, Gray, Gleeson, Donaldson, Cotterill, Toral, Spector, Morrison, Caddis. Subs: Legzdins, Robinson, Maghoma, Novak, Shinnie, Davis, Thomas.

 

13:30 Hello and welcome to live coverage of Reading FC's first game of the Championship season.

The sun is shining and 1,500 Reading fans travel here today full of optimism, hoping for the first three points of a successful season.

We'll bring you all the action as it happens.