Welsh international striker who has come through the ranks at Madejski Stadium to become an integral part of our squad and one of the best young players in the division.
Born in Wycombe, he started out with Wycombe Wanderers, then made the move to Reading while aged 14. His first involvement at first team level with Reading came when he was aged 18 as an unused sub in a Carling Cup tie at Swansea in August 2007. Just a week earlier, he had made his debut for Wales' under 21s in a 4-3 victory over Sweden.
Soon afterwards he moved to Crewe Alexandra on loan, scoring in only his second start in professional football. He made 13(+1) appearances for Alex, then got another 2(+4) games whilst on loan at Yeovil later that season.
At the start of 2008/9 he made a loan move back to Wycombe, playing 6(+3) times in what proved to be a successful promotion campaign. Church continued to shine for Wales' under 21s, scoring three goals in two games against England in an UEFA qualifying play-off, two of his goals at Ninian Park and the next at Villa Park.
His Reading debut arrived in January 2009 when coming off the bench in an FA Cup third round tie away to Cardiff - Ninian Park again an important place in his career. He then made a loan move to Leyton Orient, and became the 1000th player in their history, playing 12(+1) games for the O's and scoring five times.*
In the latter part of the 2008/9 season he was handed the captaincy for Wales' under 21s, scoring against Luxembourg to mark being given the armband. That goal took his record to eight goals in 12 appearances at under 21 level and he soon broke into the full international side under John Toshack and scored his first international goal.
He was handed a full debut in the second leg of our play-off semi-final with Burnley, before impressing new boss Brendan Rodgers early in the 2009/10 campaign with goals against Peterborough and Preston. He continued to shine for the rest of the season, and ended the season with 12 goals, a remarkable achievement in his first full season as a Royal.
Has an uncanny habbit of scoring late and, more often than not, important goals for Reading - as evidenced in the 2010/11 campaign when late winners against Ipswich, Doncaster and Nottingham Forest added to a strike in the closing stages at the KC Stadium that earned an important point against Hull.
The Welshman fired in seven goals during the 2011/12 campaign to help the club win the npower Championship.