Royals supporter Danyal Khan gives his take on Reading's brilliant 3-1 away victory against Birmingham City.

What a rollercoaster of a game.

A match which seemed destined to be another away day disappointment for the Royals after the first half turned into an amazing turnaround. I would have loved to be in the Reading dressing room at half-time to hear what was said.

Because whatever was said inspired the team to produce one of the best attacking performances I have seen in a long time.

But without further ado- here is how I viewed the game as it progressed.

We started off so lacklustre and looked like we had no idea how to defend whatsoever. Obviously, the goal so early on was a disappointment.

Miazga being punished for a mistake didn’t surprise me. Scott Hogan took no prisoners today as he latched onto the under-hit header back to Rafael and chipped the Reading goalkeeper in the process.

From then, I thought that was going to be that. Birmingham really dominated proceedings in the first half and missed a glorious chance to go 2-0 up when Jutkiewicz squared it to Hogan who somehow skied his effort from close range to our relief and luck.

However, we started playing some nice football in the last 15 minutes of the first half and that gave me some confidence that we could turn this around after half-time.

Overall we were fairly lucky to get in only one down at half-time.

But then the magic happened. The players looked determined to put right the wrongs of the first half when they entered the pitch early before the second half kicked off.

And right from the off in the second half- it all clicked so well and we suddenly looked like prime Barcelona going forward.

Wave after wave of Reading pressure eventually paid off when Matt Miazga smashed home his effort like a rocket. A striker’s finish from Mr USA himself!

The chants after the goal from Reading fans of “Matt Miazga, we want you to stay” rung out all round Saint Andrews and it sent a tingle down my spine because It made me realise how fortunate we are to have such a good player at our club!

I really do hope the board make the move permanent in the summer if they have the chance to.

After that first Reading goal - I believed like Bowen mentioned in his post-match interview that we were going to go on and win the game and I was right!

Because moments later, Yakou Meite headed in from John Swift’s cross to complete the turn-around and I felt so proud amongst all the delirium going on in the away end.

But then I realised - Oh no, there is still at least half an hour still to play here… We could still lose 3-2… It’s Reading so who knows what might have happened next…

Luckily that didn’t happen and we were able to manage the game to perfection as the 90th minute mark approached. Mark Bowen’s decision to bring on Pele and Liam Moore was definitely the right call as I felt like we were far too open as Birmingham searched for an equaliser.

The fact we were able to catch them on the break and finish the game off in the 86th minute just showed what character this team now has to grind and keep going even when the going gets tough.

Under previous managers, especially Paul Clement and Jose Gomes we would have just given up at 1-0. But fair play to Mark Bowen- the never say die attitude is great to see and is what I and many Reading fans have wanted to see for such a long time.

The third goal itself was so well constructed on the counter attack. Initially I thought McCleary messed it up taking to long. But thankfully he played the pass at just the right time as Pele was bearing down on the Birmingham goal.

The finish from Pele was Brazilian Pele-esque and it was lovely to see him score his first goal for the club. He’s definitely been a great signing and hopefully again like Miazga- we can make it permanent in the summer.

But overall, I'm so proud of how the team reacted in the second half and being 13th at this point of the season is a good achievement especially considering where we were just as Jose Gomes left the club.

For me it’s all about consistency now. For this to really fill me with optimism and confidence in the long-term, we need to get a positive result next Saturday at the Madejski Stadium against a relegation threatened Stoke City who will be up for it considering their position in the Championship table.

They will also be up for it considering they smashed Hull 5-1 on the weekend so we have to be on our game to get three points.

The signs are definitely positive- it’s just all about building something meaningful now!