Reading manager Ruben Selles admitted that his side have taken only a “small step” as their 3-2 victory over fellow strugglers Exeter lifted them out of the League One drop zone.
Harvey Knibbs gave Reading an early lead and, after Zak Jules had levelled for Exeter, City defender Alex Hartridge nodded into his own net to restore the home lead.
Dione Rankine made it 2-2 in the 68th minute but Femi Azeez rifled in what proved to be the winner nine minutes later to lift Reading out of the bottom four – above Exeter on goal difference – for the first time since September.
“It has been a long period [in the relegation zone] and there has been a lot of talk about us and around us,” Selles said.
“It took us time to find a way to compete and win football matches.
“It is just one small step today. It is more in the mind now and we know that the job is not done.
“We still know that we need to win a lot of football matches if we want to stay in this league for next season.
“At least with our situation, there is a little bit of fresh air now.
“We know that it wasn’t a perfect game from us today. We conceded a couple of goals and we should have done better in those situations.
“But we showed character and competitiveness and it was good to score three goals in front of our fans.
“I am very happy. The team is investing a lot and finally we are getting some results.”
Exeter have now slipped from top of the table in mid-September into the bottom four.
“I think that we gave away bad goals at bad times,” City manager Gary Caldwell said. “I don’t think that the overall performance was bad.
“But if you concede three goals away from home in the way we did, then you give yourselves a really difficult task to win the game.
“We scored two goals ourselves, which we’ve not done for a while, and that was pleasing. And we created other opportunities.
“But the goals that we gave away were really disappointing. It was just down to pure individual errors.
“Some of our play was very good but maybe we could have played longer in the game earlier when Reading were pressing.
“We didn’t recognise where the space was but, when we did, we caused them problems by playing in behind.
“Some of our possession was good but, when we lost the ball, we looked really poor defensively.
“Being in the relegation zone is not a thing that I’m overly concerned about. There’s a long way to go.”
Van Dijk hails Hungary 'strength' for playing on after coach collapse
Virgil van Dijk saluted Hungary for playing on after assistant coach Adam Szalai appeared to suffer a fit during their Nations League clash.
Play was suspended for 13 minutes at the Johan Cruijff ArenA while Szalai was treated pitchside, with staff and substitutes forming a protective barrier around him.
The 36-year-old was taken to Amsterdam Hospital, where he later revealed he was "doing well" on his social media channels.
Although Hungary agreed to play on, the Netherlands ran out comfortable 4-0 winners to book their place in the Nations League quarter-finals.
Wout Weghorst and Cody Gakpo were on target from the penalty spot during the first half, while goals from Denzel Dumfries and Teun Koopmeiners after the break saw the Oranje secure second place in Group A3.
And Van Dijk paid tribute to his side's opponents.
"That was quite a shock, of course," he told NOS. "You see someone lying down, you see someone shaking. That is quite scary. But thankfully, at a certain point, it became clear that he was stable. I hope he is doing well and that he recovers quickly.
"They had to decide whether they wanted to continue playing. I think it shows a lot of strength that they did carry on. I have a lot of respect for that."
On his side's performance, Van Dijk added: "The pitch was very fast, but that's no excuse. It was sloppy.
"In the end, we won deservedly and that's the most important thing. We go to the quarter-finals, we win, we keep a clean sheet."
Real Madrid 0-4 Barcelona: Guijarro brace sets visitors up for Clasico glory
Patri Guijarro's first-half brace set Barcelona on their way to a thumping 4-0 win over rivals Real Madrid in Liga F on Saturday.
Claudia Pina and Alexia Putellas were also on target as Barcelona continued their perfect start to the season, extending their lead at the top of the table.
The visitors dominated from the off, as Guijarro broke the deadlock inside the fourth minute, tapping in from Putellas' flick-on from a corner.
Cata Coll was forced into a big save to deny Alba Redondo an equaliser shortly after, but Madrid's hope was soon dented as Guijarro picked out the bottom corner with a superb long-range strike for her second.
Pina strengthened their lead six minutes before the break, clinically slotting past Misa with her low strike.
Putellas added some more gloss to the scoreline with four minutes remaining of normal time, beating the Madrid keeper with a lovely dink to bring up her 199th goal for the club.
Barcelona have won all 10 of their games, and now sit eight points clear of Madrid, who suffered their first league defeat of the campaign.
Data Debrief: Total dominance
Madrid will have felt fairly confident coming into this game after a strong start to their season, but they once again failed to find a way past their Clasico rival.
Los Blancos have lost every single game they have played against Barcelona in all competitions, with this their 15th such meeting.
Barcelona smothered their attack early on, restricting their hosts to just one shot in the first half, while they had 10.
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
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