After a decade or so of flirting with promotion to the top flight, Reading are finally ready to go all the way. Gone are the feelings of nervousness and inadequacy that blighted previous seasons - this Steve Coppell side are filled with slick operators who know exactly how to get what they want.

The victory took Reading six points clear of third-placed Luton Town and only three shy of leaders Sheffield United. They have the best defensive record in the league and play an enthralling, high-tempo passing game.

"It's the best we've played all season," said Kevin Doyle, the exciting 22-year-old Irish striker who made the first and scored the second. "If we continue in that sort of form we should go up. When I arrived [from Cork City] I was told Reading always dip after Christmas, so that's what we have to sort out next."

Doyle, whose childhood background in Gaelic football makes him a tenacious striker, gives Coppell another option in what is looking a flexible squad - Steve Sidwell, the Championship's finest all-round midfielder, is still to return from injury.

Ipswich, however, were a real mess and deserved a thrashing. Their manager, Joe Royle, sent his side out in a new-look 3-5-2 formation. It was a tactical disaster. "They were very good and we were very poor," Royle said.

"I'm fuming because players have not done what they were told." The idea was to harness Darren Currie's undoubted skill by playing him in the hole, although it could also be seen as a means of disguising the fact that he looks as if he's running underwater.

Reading, by contrast, have serious speed and were quickly exploiting the spaces behind the wing-backs.

After just two minutes, Ipswich should have had last man Jason de Vos sent off for pulling down Doyle. Referee Steve Tanner consulted his linesman and merely booked the big defender.

Leroy Lita had already dragged a great chance wide when Doyle exploited Fabian Wilnis' lapse in concentration to pass the ball across the face of goal. With Lita lurking, Richard Naylor slid the ball into his own goal.

Nicky Forster, back at the club he served with such distinction, then had the ball in the net for Ipswich, but clearly handled the ball in the process.

Royle realised he needed to change things and he threw on Adam Proudlock for De Vos at the break, switching to a 4-3-3. The change did not bother Reading - they took all of 120 seconds to get their second. Glen Little crossed from the right and Doyle got above Luis Castro Sito at the far post to steer in a header.

It was carnage as the home side ripped into their victims: Bobby Convey had an effort ruled out for offside; Lita hit the post from Doyle's deft scoop pass; and the Irishman hit the bar from the rebound.

Duncan White (Daily Telegraph)