Sam Allardyce's side thought they were going to leave the Madejski Stadium with a point after Michael Duberry's own goal had cancelled out Dave Kitson's strike, a 20-yard effort which had given Reading a secondhalf lead.

But Long had other ideas and won the match with only his second touch of the game, as he fired home six minutes from time for his second goal of the season.

Elsewhere, Birmingham's prospective owner Carson Yeung saw former Juventus player Olivier Kapo score a late winner for Steve Bruce's side against Wigan at St Andrews.

Yeung had witnessed City twice fall in arrears to a twogoal blast from Marcus Bent only for a Kapo penalty and skipper Liam Ridgewell's first goal for the club to bring Blues back on level terms.

With nine minutes remaining Kapo struck a superb winner to give Bruce a massive lift before he holds talks with Yeung during the next 24 hours. The fans chanted "there's only one Steve Bruce" in the closing stages to make their feeling known to Yeung about the former Manchester United skipper.