Suling Sonko's Stonker - Reading 2 Plymouth 0

Bad boy Ibrahima Sonko was firmly back in Steve Coppell's good books last night after killing off Plymouth with two crucial headers.

The Senegalese defender was cheered off the Madejski Stadium by the same Reading fans who laid part of the blame at his door for their Premier League relegation in May.

Sulking Sonko had refused to play in a reserve game leaving Steve Coppell with no choice but to ban him from the club for the final three games of last season.

And the defeats Reading suffered in two of those games were crucial as they dropped out of the top flight.

But last night Coppell closed the door on their differences saying: "It was good to see him out there and scoring goals.

"Ibrahima made a bad judgment call and did it for himself. A situation developed but it was resolved when I spoke to him at the end of last season."

Coppell did add that he was concerned his side's first two league goals had been produced by a defender after strikers Leroy Lita and Kevin Doyle failed to fire.

"It has been a bit flat up front so far," said Coppell. "And I know we can play a lot better."

In a bright start Plymouth created chances through the lively Jason Puncheon and Simon Walton also volleyed wide.

But they were sunk by a sucker goal after 13 minutes when Sonko was allowed to run unmarked to meet Stephen Hunt's corner and plant his header wide of Graham Stack.

Plymouth paid a three-point penalty for failing to learn their lesson from that goal.

Sonko completed his first double in English football four minutes after the break from exactly the same training ground rehearsed set-piece though his second was more of a glancing header.

In the closing minutes Plymouth might have pulled a goal back when a low Puncheon effort went just wide.

But, after a shock midweek defeat to lowly Luton, manager Paul Sturrock was not in total despair.

Having signed nine new players this summer, he is still looking for them to gel.

He said: "The killer for us was to come away from home and concede an early goal.

"I have got a lot of waifs and strays here and I am waiting for then to come together.

"But at least we didn't crumble."

HOW THEY RATED

READING

Hahnemann 6, Rosenior 6, SONKO 8, Ingimarsson 6, S Hunt 6, Kebe 6, Harper 5, Cisse 5, Convey 6 (Kelly 5), Lita 6 (N Hunt 5), Doyle 5 (Long 5).

Manager Coppell 5

PLYMOUTH

Stack 5, Duguid 5, Doumbe 4, Seip 4 (Timar 5), Barker 5, Puncheon 7, Walton 5 (McNamee 5), Summerfield 5, Clark 6, Mackie 5 (MacLean 5), Fallon 6.

Manager Sturrock 7

Referee R Beeby 7

MAN OF THE MATCH

IBRAHIMA SONKO

A brace of headers left the Pilgrims well short of the promised land