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Kevin Doyle hit his 16th goal of the season as Reading moved into the Championship's top two with a 3-1 win at promotion rivals Birmingham.

Doyle took advantage of slack defending midway through the second half to head in and render a moment of individual brilliance from Blues striker Kevin Phillips worthless.

Phillips had dragged Alex McLeish's side level against the run of play with a fine solo goal only for Doyle to respond and midfielder Kalifa Cisse to add a late third which sees Reading leapfrog their hosts into the automatic promotion places.

Earlier Reading's Noel Hunt had shaken off a head injury to bend in a 25-yard free-kick before later succumbing to his second knockout blow of the season.

The striker has no memory of a goal he scored against Burnley in October as he was knocked out in the process but may be made to remember this one for years should the three points eventually pave the way for promotion back to the Premier League.

The returning James McFadden showed a few nice touches early on but it was a bad one from him which led to Hunt's 13th-minute opener.

McFadden fouled Hunt - who had seconds earlier clashed heads with Franck Queudrue - 25 yards from goal and the forward nonchalantly bent the resulting free-kick over the wall and into the corner.

Maik Taylor got a hand to the shot but could not prevent Hunt from claiming his 11th goal of a productive first season in England.

The dazed Hunt was then brought off as a result of his earlier head injury with Shane Long partnering Doyle up front.

The game lost its tempo for the remainder of the half after Hunt's departure but Steve Coppell's side started the second brightly, with Long twice close to connecting with dangerous crosses from the right.

Birmingham looked clueless in attack before a mistake from Cisse allowed Phillips to produce a superb individual goal in the 60th minute.

The Royals were totally in control of the ball when Cisse needlessly turned into trouble in midfield where he was robbed by Lee Carsley.

Phillips nipped in to steal the loose ball and after nutmegging Ivar Ingimarsson advanced unchallenged to the edge of the area and lashed in a stinging low drive which gave goalkeeper Adam Federici no chance.

It was a sublime goal worthy of a striker who has chalked up over 240 goals in his career but just six minutes later his opposite number nine Doyle put the visitors back ahead.

Stephen Hunt (pictured) swept in a curling free-kick and Doyle got ahead of Radhi Jaidi to steer a flicked header wide of Taylor and into the far corner.

Jaidi then saw his goalbound header blocked by team-mate Cameron Jerome before Federici pulled off a top-class save to deny Phillips as the hosts poured forward in search of an equaliser.

But hopes of a comeback were killed off when Cisse redeemed himself with the third in the 82nd minute.

The tireless Doyle sent in a deep cross from the right touchline and Cisse towered over Stuart Parnaby to thump a header past Taylor from six yards.

TeamTalk / Eurosport