Royals striker Shane Long was the toast of the town once more after bagging the opener and an injury time penalty to earn Reading three points at home to Plymouth.

"Hal did really well to win the penalty - he came on and really upset their defence and he created the chance for me.

"I had the confidence to stand up and grab the opportunity with both hands," Long said after his dramatic late spot kick.

"With Gylfi out of the team I knew there was a space open. I know Brian Howard and Jobi were eager to take it as well, but I got my hands on the ball first.

"I just grabbed it and thought - it's now or never! I stepped up and took my regular approach and it was good to see it back of the net to earn us the result I thought we fully deserved."

Long revealed that he and goalkeeper Adam Federici had been practicing spot kicks together in training and that it helped keep him composed ahead of the crucial penalty.

"He tells me which way he thinks I'm going to go and he knows exactly how I take them. Then he tries to save them.

"It's good practice - it gets you both of us better at taking and saving penalties. I think a straight run up helps put the keeper off. And thankfully I sent him the wrong way. So practice makes perfect!"

Asked who ususally comes up trumps in training, Long wryly smiled and admitted, "Feds is a good keeper to be fair!!"

Long had opened the scoring with a cool right-footed finish six minutes after half time and came so close to scoring the winner in the final minutes of normal time when he bundled a saved free kick onto the post.

"The defender made a good tackle on me and it kind of hit me before I knew anything about it," he said.

"But the minute they got their goal we felt hard done by. He half shanked it into the net - if he'd struck it well I think Federici would have been as unbeatable as he has been.

"But it took a mishit to get it past him - and we knew we had to go on from there and push hard again for the three points.

"When we got the penalty I knew myself I wanted to take it. I'm feeling good at the moment.

"That first goal is always hard to come by but when it does come, chances seem to come along more readily and things become a lot easier. It's nice to get scoring again and hopefully I can add a lot more from here on in.

"About three months ago I was playing with an injury, but the manager has showed a lot of patience and faith in me in letting me get back to full fitness.

"Grzegorz and Gunnar are on the bench snapping at my heels and it's good to have that compeititon in the team - it makes you perform every weekend, knowing that if you let up they'll be straight in there.

"So regular games is good for me. It doesn't really catch up on me that much, so I'd like to play again on Saturday."

Boss Brian McDermott was very pleased with his striker's contribution, saying, "He's fit, he's looking after himself and he's confident. We're seeing the player we knew we could. He's winning his headers and we're really, really pleased for him because he's a great guy.

"Only one guy was going to take the penalty, he was quickest to the ball, picked it up and was really confident he would score, he has been practising them. He deserves it all, he's worked so hard in the last few weeks."