Aston Villa fell to defeat in Premier League 2 on Friday night, losing 3-1 to Reading at Bodymoor Heath.
Despite starting the stronger of the two teams on home soil, Josep Gombau's side quickly fell behind, as two goals in four minutes after half an hour from Adrian Akande and Tyler Sackey sent the Villans in at the break 2-0 down.
Substitute Ben Broggio's close-range effort halved the deficit 14 minutes from time, but the visitors quickly went up the other end and sealed the three points, as Ashqar Ahmed's tap-in condemned the hosts to a 3-1 defeat.
The Villans started well at Bodymoor, controlling the majority of the opening exchanges.
Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba had the ball in the net inside the opening seven minutes, but was flagged offside, before Charlie Pavey’s effort was deflected wide moments later.
But the Young Lions were left to rue a lack of cutting edge in the first period, as the Royals grew in confidence and took the lead on the half hour. Emmanuel Osho won the ball back high up the field and fed Akande, who cut inside and fired an effort low into the bottom corner from the edge of the area.
And within three minutes, Reading had doubled their advantage and given Villa a mountain to climb. A ball into the box wasn’t dealt with by the home defence, allowing Sackey to pounce and convert past Lander Emery from close range.
Villa began the second period as they did the first, with a renewed vigour and energy as they looked to reduce the arrears.
Just before the hour came their best chance of the affair, when Kane Taylor played substitute Mason Cotcher in on goal. Royals goalkeeper Tom Norcott made himself big to deny the frontman, who couldn't add to his midweek FA Youth Cup hat-trick heroics against Bristol City.
Broggio's introduction gave the home side a different attacking dimension, and his ball across goal 10 minutes after Cotcher's effort was denied was agonisingly missed by everyone in the centre.
Broggio would however give Villa hope, putting his name on the scoresheet with 14 minutes left to play. Bradley Burrowes swung a menacing ball deep to the back post which his fellow forward made no mistake in converting.
But Gombau's players proved unable to harness any momentum, and just a minute after scoring, had conceded a third which would consign them to defeat.
A Reading free-kick was swung to the far post and connected with by Jack Senga, allowing Ahmed to tap home before the ball crossed the line to complete the scoring and ensure all three points went back to Berkshire with the visitors.
