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.”