READING suffered their second defeat of the festive period, as they went down 3-0 at Middlesbrough on Sunday afternoon.
It was the Royals third loss on the bounce and saw them slip to ninth in the Championship table and out of the play-off places.
The home side dominated the game from the start, as Albert Adomah put away a Lukas Jutkiewicz nod down after 12 minutes.
The advantage was doubled before the break, after Grant Leadbitter fired in from 25 yards out.
The Reading fightback took a blow early in the second-half, as Kaspars Gorkss was sent-off as he received a second yellow card following a lunge on Emmanuel Ledesma on 53 minutes.
Despite being reduced to 10 men, Reading had a couple of good chances from Garath McCleary and Billy Sharp.
The hosts then took charge of the game again with Adomah shooting just wide, before Reading centre-back Alex Pearce fouled Emmanuel Ledesma in the box.
Leadbitter made sure of the win as he put away the penalty with eight minutes left to complete the 3-0 win.
Reading manager Nigel Adkins said: "We have not been anywhere near good enough today.
"Kaspars Gorkss has been sent off and I'm not sure the first was a booking and for the second he didn't even touch the player.
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