Leam Richardson praised Reading's resilience and character after the Royals overturned a half-time deficit to beat Barnsley 2-1 at the Select Car Leasing Stadium.

Reading were second best for much of the first half and trailed at the break, but a much-improved display after the interval was rewarded when Kyreece Lisbie scored twice to secure all three points and a second successive home league victory.

While Richardson was keeping the details of his half-time team talk behind closed doors, he admitted standards had slipped during the opening 45 minutes and revealed senior players helped drive the response.

"That'll stay private, but a couple of senior players said some powerful words as well because they knew that wasn't us in the first half.

"Fair play to Barnsley because I thought they set up very well. It took us a little bit of time to kind of work it out a little bit.

"But then I thought it was a game of two halves, wasn't it? I thought second half they were excellent. Then we looked a threat every time we turned the ball over on the counter-attack and in the end we deserved to win the game."

Richardson believes the victory highlighted the progress his side are making, turning a difficult afternoon into another statement result.

"Last year we possibly might have drawn that game and now we want to go that one step further.

"We want to have a bit more character within our group, whether that's an individual leader or more collective leaders on there to go and win games like that.

"I certainly wasn't happy at half-time and this group have set the bar at quite a good level, a high level, and it's important that I make sure they stay at that level as well.

"I demand a lot off them and I certainly don't accept when they kind of drop below that standard."

The Reading boss reserved particular praise for match-winner Lisbie, whose double continued an impressive start to the campaign.

Richardson believes the youngster's development off the ball is proving just as important as his ability in possession.

"He's been a great signing for the club.

"You can see he's improving off the ball as well. For a young lad to start getting the information in and really working hard for the team off the ball, his qualities are obviously there to see when we're in possession and the pace that he carries.

"He's coming on leaps and bounds. He's a large part of the squad, a really good personality and a really humble kid as well.

"There's still a lot more in him as there is in our team."

The victory means Reading have taken six points from their last two home matches before attention turns to a challenging run of fixtures away from Berkshire.