Steve Clarke afforded himself a few smiles on the touchline and who could blame him ? This has been a strange old season for Reading , who are one win away from an FA Cup semi-final against Arsenal but have spent too long being too close to a Championship relegation battle . At least this win will go some way to easing that load . They made it hard for themselves , but they had an in-form player in Jamie Mackie who was able to get the job done . He put Reading in front in the first half and then scored a brilliant winner just moments after Chris O ’ Grady had levelled with a penalty – one of the only legitimate chances Brighton had all night , even if Clarke was angry about the decision . Reading frontman Jamie Mackie fires the Royals ahead against Brighton in Tuesday 's Championship fixture . Mackie ( centre ) is congratulated by Nathaniel Chalobah and Garath McCleary after netting Reading 's opener . Reading ( 4-1-3-2 ) : Federici ; Gunter , Hector , Cooper , Chalobah ; Akpan ; McLeary , Williams ( Keown 92 ) , Robson-Kanu ( Pogrebnyak 76 ) ; Blackman , Mackie ( Norwood 79 ) Subs not used : Cox , Yakubu , Andersen , Taylor . Scorer : Mackie , 24 , 56 . Booked : McLeary , Pogrebnyak . Brighton ( 4-3-3 ) : Stockdale ; Halford , Greer , Dunk , Bennett ; Ince ( Best 75 ) , Kayal , Forster-Caskey ; Ledesma ( Bruno 86 ) , O'Grady , LuaLua . Subs not used : Ankergren , Calderon , Hughes , Holla , Teixeira . Scorer : O'Grady ( Pen ) , 53 . Booked : Ince , Dunk , Bennett , Greer . Ref : Andy Haines . Attendance : 14,748 . Ratings by Riath Al-Samarrai . He said : ‘ It ’ s embarrassing . There was almost no contact . It seems to be the standard of refereeing in this division. ’ The win puts Reading 13 points off the bottom three and Clarke added : ‘ It gives us a lift in the league because that is what was needed . It was a big win . It makes the gap bigger between us and the bottom three and we needed that. ’ Brighton , meanwhile , have now gone five games on the road without a win and this one came against a side that had gone 344 minutes without scoring at home before Mackie netted midway through the first half . Brighton goalkeeper David Stockdale must take an element of blame . His pass out to Rohan Ince was easily cut out and after advancing unchallenged Mackie pulled the trigger from the edge of the area . By then , Jake Cooper had already seen an effort hacked off the Brighton goal-line by Jake Forster-Caskey and Hal Robson-Kanu made a spectacular hash of a chance , launching the ball into the stands when he went clean through . Mackie ’ s strike eased the tension and almost immediately Reading could have been two up , only for Michael Hector to balloon over the bar from six yards . Niall Keown , son of Arsenal legend Martin ( right ) , made his senior debut for Reading against Brighton . Brighton striker Chris O'Grady scores from the penalty spot to level the scores at the Madejski Stadium . O'Grady celebrates his equaliser for the Seagulls but Brighton went onto concede just three minutes later . And Brighton ? Not a chance of note in the entire first half for a side that had lost only once in six coming in . Then it got exciting . Cooper pushed Emmanuel Ledesma , who went to ground and won a 53rd-minute penalty , which Chris O ’ Grady converted for Brighton . Clarke fumed about the decision but it did not look overly contentious . Any animosity need not have lingered as Mackie nailed his fourth in four league games from 25 yards just three minutes later . Reading winger Hal Robson-Kanu is crowded out by Brighton duo Rohan Ince and Emmanuel Ledesma . Goalscorer O'Grady holds off the challenge of Reading midfielder McCleary during Tuesday 's encounter . Chris Hughton waved on Brighton but his side found no way of turning decent possession into reasonable chances . Reading added a line of reinforcement by bringing on Niall Keown – son of Martin Keown - for his debut in stoppage time . Brighton found no way of testing him . Hughton said : ‘ We are not there ( safe from relegation ) yet , not by a long way . In the morning I will be grateful of that nine points . ‘ We have to get the formula right away from home . '
Reading are now 13 points above the Championship drop zone . Frontman Jamie Mackie scored twice to earn Royals all three points . Chris O'Grady scored for Chris Hughton 's Brighton from the penalty spot . Niall Keown - son of Pogrebnyak columnist Martin - made Reading debut .