Wing duly delivered with a fierce shot into the roof of the net from the edge of the Stockport area.

The 30-year-old’s ninth goal of the season extended the Royals’ unbeaten run to five matches.

“You know the quality of Lewis on the edge of the box and around those areas,” Richardson said.

“With the chance that he had before, I expected him to probably score or do better and at least hit the target.

“But he lands on the next one. And it’s never in doubt, is it?

“He worked really hard as well and then showed that little bit of quality with that chance at the end.”

Reading are up to ninth place, just four points off the play-off places.

“It was really good tactical game for coaches, perhaps not the best spectacle to watch,” Richardson added.

“But I’m sure our fans saw a real willingness and also how we adapted to certain situations.

“All the best-laid plans are there to adapt, which we had to because we played against a really strong team today.

“For us to not only compete against them but to get the win as well, it’s really pleasing.

“In the first half, we controlled the possession quite a lot and tried to find a number of solutions.

“In the second half, we probably had to defend a little bit more. But it’s resilience that we’re after and we got that.

“If we don’t get our noses in front early on, then we just have to stay in the game.”

Stockport lie sixth in the table but have won only three of their past 10 league matches.

County manager Dave Challinor said: “It was disappointing. But that’s what you get if you don’t do your jobs defensively from set-pieces.

“Ultimately, that’s what cost us in the last part of the game.

“Do I think that we deserved to lose? No. Did we do enough to win? Probably not.

“We had good moments in the first half but without making the most of them. It was a similar story in the second half.

“But we’ve conceded 11 goals from set-pieces now and the majority of that is down to people not being able to do their jobs, which is a big problem.

“It doesn’t matter what I pride myself in.

“I’ve got people on the pitch who can’t switch on in the 90th minute in order to do a job on a player (Wing) who throughout his career has scored goals from distance.”