Sheffield Wednesday's great run of form under Stuart Gray continued on Saturday with a 2-0 win at promotion chasing Reading.
The Owls have a poor recent record at the Madejski Stadium have being thumped on a couple of occasions and their were warning signs of another tough afternoon ahead when in-form strikers Le Fondre and Pogrebnyak were denied in the opening 10 minutes.
The game changed in Wednesday's favour on 10 minutes when Benik Afobe turned inside Royals defender Pearce and was bearing down goal when Pearce's challenge sent him to the ground. The referee dismissed Pearce and awarded Wednesday their first spot kick of the season and their first in an away match for as long as many fans can remember.
Man of the moment Chris Maguire made no mistake with the penalty, sending the keeper the wrong way and from then on the Owls produced an assured away performance in picking up another 3 points.
Reading had bagged 12 goals in their previous 2 home matches and even with 10 men they would have expected to cause an Owls defence beset by injury absences plenty of problems. Midfielder Jose Semedo had to play at centre-back but didn't look out of place at all as the visitors reduced Reading to speculative efforts and Chris Kirkland didn't have a save to make.
The lead was almost doubled just before half time when a fierce strike from Afobe clipped the top of the bar. The Owls needed another goal to give them a cushion and that arrived just before the hour mark when the Reading keeper fumbled a low strike from Maguire and Afobe was on hand to tap home.
From 2-0 up Wednesday never looked like letting their hosts back into the game and may well be disappointed not to have added further gloss to the score line.
Jeremy Helan hit a post with a well struck effort and substitute Nuhiu dragged an effort wide of the mark. Michail Antonio looked lively on his return from injury as Wednesday extended their unbeaten run to 11 matches.
The Owls are now 9 points clear of the relegation zone with a comparatively healthy goal difference to boot and although they have some more tough tests on the horizon 4 of their next 5 league games are at home.