The Sky Blues slipped to their tenth Championship defeat of the seasonCoventry City were left to rue missed opportunities as they suffered their tenth Championship defeat of the season at promotion pushing Reading.
The Sky Blues could have been 2-0 up inside the first 14 minutes when Callum O’Hare and Leo Ostigard wasted clear cut chances to give them a comfortable lead at the Madejski Stadium.
But the Royals’ lethal finisher Lucas Joao punished Mark Robins’s men minutes later with a clinish finish before Andy Rinomhota doubled the home lead a minute into the second half.
City then pressed the self destruct button in the 71st minute when Kyle McFadzean was sent off for a second yellow card and John Swift fired in a wonder strike to make it 3-0 from the resulting free-kick.
Ostigard had a second half header saved well but the visitors really should have scored when chances presented themselves in the opening minutes, and O’Hare knew it after the nippy forward raced in to intercept a backpass from a defender with barely two minutes on the clock.
But, breaking into the box with just the keeper to beat, the midfielder placed his shot too close to Rafael Cabral to enable him to make the save.
And the visitors wasted another clear cut chance in the 13th minute when a short corner from Matty James went to Sam McCallum who sent in a lovely ball into the box where Ostigard met it cleanly with his head but directed it wide of the right-hand post with all the goal to aim at.
Coventry’s profligacy in front of goal was punished three minutes later when Reading grabbed the lead from their first attempt on goal.
A long ball over the top from Swift was gathered just inside the 18-yard line by Joao who beat the off-side trap and fired home past Ben Wilson to give the home side a 17th minute lead completely against the run of play with his 17th goal of the season.
The Royals went close to doubling their lead shortly after when the impressive Ovie Ejaria dribbled his way past two players into the box and thumped the foot of Wilson’s right-hand post, and Joao slid in at the far post two minutes before half-time, sending the ball wide to let City off the hook.
Robins’s men, however, played some lovely football at times, spreading the play and putting together some intricate passes in the final third as they enjoyed the greater share of possession in the first half, during which they should have been in front at the break.
But the home side wasted no time in extending their advantage from the restart when Ostigard missed a header to allow Joao in behind, the striker cutting in past Dom Hyam at the byline and pulling the ball back for Andy Rinomhota to slam home from 25 yards as City were too slow to close him down.
Ostigard, however, continued to be a goal threat at the other end where he was denied at the far post by the keeper who pushed his powerful and well directed header from a Hamer free-kick onto the right-hand upright as City attempted to get themselves back in the game.
New loan signing Viktor Gyokeres, who had been fairly isolated and didn’t have a single sight of goal on his debut, was replaced by Max Biamou just short of the hour as the Sky Blues continued to produce plenty of enterprising approach play but without the end product.
But disaster struck in the 71st minute when Kyle McFadzean was shown a second yellow card for a foul outside the box, leaving his side down to ten men as Swift hit a wonder strike from a good 25 yards out from the resulting free-kick straight into the top corner to make it 3-0 and put the game beyond Coventry’s reach.