Alex Neil praised Dwight Gayle after he ended his 50-game goal drought in Stoke’s 4-0 rout of Reading.

The 33-year-old forward notched his first goal since December 2020 as he capped an impressive Potters’ display in the Sky Bet Championship clash.

An early Will Smallbone effort opened the scoring with Tyrese Campbell and Jacob Brown tightening Stoke’s grip on the tie.

And a first home win since early November was topped when Josh Laurent’s long-range effort deflected fortuitously off Gayle into the corner.

The hosts clinched their first points of 2023 in emphatic fashion as they secured their biggest league victory since July 2020.

“I’m delighted for Dwight,” Neil said. “I thought he worked his socks off and he was excellent.

“I’m very hopeful for him because the effort levels and what he brings to the team is great and you want him to get that recognition by getting goals.

“There’s a saying that a striker just needs one to go in off his backside and then the rest will come and pretty much that’s what happened!

“I believe that once we get to the end of this window and strengthen some positions, we’ll have people in the building that can help him.

“It’s a nice feeling today. Our quality was good, we were strong defensively and there were some excellent performances in there.

“I think we all needed a shot in the arm; it’s nice to come in having kept a clean sheet and scoring four goals, particularly at home.

“We really want to kick-off from this point. I’m not satisfied with one win, albeit I’ll have a better night tonight than I have done recently.

“We’re all of the understanding that we’re in a rebuilding phase, so it’s important we keep winning games and getting results and today, they’ve done themselves proud.”

The 602 fans in the away end had little to cheer about in a miserable afternoon in the Potteries.

The Royals’ winless run stretches to four games in the league, with Paul Ince’s team last tasting victory in December.

Ince said: “I’m so disappointed – we just didn’t compete and it was a bad day for us.

“I said before the game, we’re coming to a team with a poor home record, and you’ve got a great opportunity to quieten the crowd.

“It was so important that in the first 15 minutes you score the first goal and don’t concede and that’s not what we did.

“It wasn’t that they cut us open; we’ve lost three goals from defensive mistakes.

“We have to cut out the stupid schoolboy mistakes and defensively we were diabolical. You look at the score and think it’s a hammering, but it wasn’t.

“At half-time, I could have taken everybody off. You can’t give teams like that, who are nervous at home, the initiative to go and win the game.

“Some of the things these players are doing baffles me, especially when we’re away.

“There was nothing between the two teams but you can’t keep making basic mistakes – and we made three of them.

“I said to them ‘you’ve let yourselves, me and the fans down who have come a long way to sit in the freezing cold’.

“I hope this acts as a wake-up call and a kick up the backside.”