Darren's delight as Reading win at Preston

by Joe McHugh Darren O'Dea picked up his first win bonus as a Reading player last night when Brendan Rodgers side won 2-1 at Preston.

Simon Church and Jimmy Kebe scored in the first half to put the visitors in front, Preston pulled a goal back with an 85th minute penalty from Jon Parkin but were unable to equalise with former Celt Ross Wallace hitting the post.

It was a welcome three points for Rodgers after Reading had dropped into fourth bottom place without a home win in five games.

Most importantly it was the fifth game in seventeen days that O'Dea has had, exactly the sort of experience and game time that he requires to improve his game and catapult him back into the reckoning at Celtic.

With Stephen McManus back in the Celtic squad it's unlikely that O'Dea would have made the bench in the SPL as Tony Mowbray attempts to find his best central defensive partnership between McManus, Gary Caldwell and Glenn Loovens competing for places.

On Saturday Reading are at home to Middlesboro before O'Dea reports for international duty.

Speaking after his side's win at in-form Preston Reading boss Rodgers was quick to praise his side's determination to hang onto their first half lead after shipping in three second half goals to lose at Peterboro in their previous away match.

The Reading boss said: "I'm really pleased. I thought we were outstanding tonight, especially in the first half, like we have been in a lot of games.

"We were very good with the ball and went 2-0 up and I thought we were exceptional in the first half with or without the ball.

"Tactically we were strong and going into second half we knew Alan (Irvine) is an outstanding coach, so we knew his team would come out and give it a go.

"We had a chance to kill the game and then from that moment the game turned a bit but that's the nature of it

"They are the home team and they have to come out and we played a bit more on the counter-attack.

"But we had to defend and defend well. It was a great mark of our team to come to a place like this and beat a very good team who will be up there. I was really proud of the players tonight."

Verdict from Reading Post

Elsewhere it was a quiet night for the loan Celts. Cillian Sheridan was left on the bench as Plymouth won 2-1 at Peterboro, at Swindon Simon Ferry was missing from their 1-1 draw at Exeter where Ben Hutchison appeared as a first half substitute for Danny Wilson's side.