Reading 3-0 Sheffield Wednesday: Michael Olise, Lucas Joao and Andy Yiadom goals earn Royals victory

As Lucas Joao wheeled away in celebration after scoring his side’s second goal to put this game to bed, Sheffield Wednesday fans will have wondered what might have been.

The Portuguese was one of five strikers already at Wednesday when they signed Jordan Rhodes in 2017. It is the type of trolley-dash deal that sums up the modern-day Owls.

Rhodes has scored just 16 goals since that move and when you add up his £8million transfer fee and four years’ worth of wages, each of those strikes are worth more than £1m.

Michael Olise (right) scores the opener with a penalty as Reading see off Sheffield Wednesday

Lucas Joao (right) nets the second and has a hug with Andy Yiadom, who would score the third

Joao, on the other hand, was allowed to join Reading and came back to haunt his old club. He now has 21 goals for the season and looks one of the finest strikers in the division.

His second-half strike added to a first-half Michael Olise penalty – an incident that also saw Wednesday defender Julian Borner shown a straight red. Andy Yiadom added a late goal to make it 3-0 to the promotion-chasing Royals.

New Wednesday boss Darren Moore has a mammoth task on his hands to keep the Owls up. They are now seven points from safety and are staring at the League One trapdoor.

And if any Wednesday fan is under the illusion that they will make an instant return to the second tier, just ask supporters of Ipswich and Sunderland how they fared under similar pretences.

But Moore would have been pleased with the way his side started this game, limiting Reading to little in way of goal-scoring chances.  

It was the Owls who had the clearest sight of goal early on, when centre back Tom Lees rattled the crossbar with a header from Kadeem Harris’ corner on 15 minutes.

But any positivity Moore might have had was wiped away in one phase of play on 30 minutes.

Julian Borner carelessly lost possession, giving George Puscas half of the pitch to himself to bear down on the Wednesday goal.

Puscas seemed to slow down, offering Borner an invitation to foul him. The German defender cordially replied with a blatant shove, resulting in a penalty and straight red card. Michael Olise stepped up and slotted home.

It was Wednesday’s seventh red card of the season and from that point, the Owls were chasing shadows and were now without their creator-in-chief, Barry Bannan, who was sacrificed for defender Matt Penney as Moore looked to solidify his 10 men.

Many headlines this week have been about Reading full back Omar Richards, who will join Bayern Munich in the summer. He shone here but another product of their youth set-up, Olise, was the star.

The 19-year-old midfielder was the pulse of all Reading attacks and made the second goal on 65 minutes, wriggling into space and finding Andy Yiadom, who pulled the ball back to Lucas Joao for an easy finish.

Yiadom added a goal of his own in the closing minutes, with a nice right-footed finish for 3-0 which guaranteed a pleasing three points for Veljko Paunovic’s Royals side. 

The lowly visitors were reduced to 10 men before Joao netted after George Puscas was sent off

Goalkeeper Rafael points in the direction his side hope they are going from the Championship

Reading boss Veljko Paunovic (centre) urges his side on to a third straight league win in a row

Hitman Joao has 18 league goals for the season after taking revenge on his former employers

New Wednesday manager Darren Moore is now in charge of a side seven points shy of safety