BLACKBURN, England – Blackburn kept up their Champions League push with a dominant 4-2 victory over sorry Reading at Ewood Park on Saturday.

Mark Hughes’s side remain sixth in the table after their fifth win in nine games, keeping them above the likes of Chelsea.

Blackburn dominated from the off and it looked simply a matter of time before they opened the scoring.

Reading stopper Marcus Hahnemann made good early stops to deny Christopher Samba and David Bentley but he could do nothing to keep out Beni McCarthy’s effort on 18 minutes.

It was a lovely sweeping move that set up the chance with Australian Brett Emerton crossing for Roque Santa Cruz to head back across goal for the South African forward to score.

Santa Cruz then doubled the advantage four minutes later, slipping the ball under Hahnemann after latching on to David Dunn’s clever cross with the outside of his boot.

Reading were stuggling to stay in touch with the hosts and things got worse on 32 minutes as Bentley’s right-wing cross was cleared to the edge of the area where former Turkey midfielder Tugay hit a stunning half-volley that went through Hahnemann’s hands before hitting the net.

Reading hardly threatened before the break although late on Andre Bikey should have done better than plant a header from eight yards straight at American keeper Brad Friedel.

The second half was a largely pedestrian affair but exploded into life in the last 10 minutes. Kevin Doyle briefly gave Reading hope, heading home from a corner but that hope was quickly extinguished.

Only a minute later, Ibrahima Sonko brought down substitute Matt Derbyshire in the box and McCarthy stepped up to slot home the penalty.

In the final minute, though, Reading salvaged a little more pride as Doyle notched his second, heading home a cross from England left-back Nicky Shorey.