Shaun Goater was sacrificed as Reading adopted a cautious approach to their Division One clash with high-flying Sheffield United last night.

The match, televised live in the UK, saw Reading claim a terrific 2-1 victory with Goater a spectator on the substitutes bench.

Adrian Williams and Nicky Forster grabbed the goals for the Royals with Ashley Ward getting United's strike.

Reading boss Steve Coppell, looking to bounce back from the midweek home loss to Walsall, packed the midfield at Bramall Lane, bringing in midfielder Andy Hughes and playing just Forster up front in a 4-5-1 formation. As a result there was no place for Goater and with the Royals holding a 2-1 lead from two minutes before the interval, it was no surprise that the manager opted to maintain the status quo up front.

"I'm fairly flexible in shapes," explained Coppell afterwards. "I'm quite comfortable changing and in the three home games I've felt it's been `you have an attack, we have an attack'.

"I looked at the quality of the Sheffield team and felt I had to do something about it. So rather than have an open, free-flowing game, I felt we needed to be tighter.

"Hughesy's energy is great and give us something different in midfield - I wanted us to be more compact."

Reading move up to eighth in the table with the win, while the Blades drop to fourth.

The game saw a debut for Reading for defender Ivar Ingimarsson, a ?100,000 capture from Premiership Wolves.