We look back to Christmas 2004 for our latest look back to a past fixture against our upcoming Championship opponent, when Steve Coppell brought the Royals to Deepdale, but it was the Lilywhites who took the late festive gift of the three points.
And marking the start of his time in PR1, Patrick Agyemang's first goal for PNE helped the Lilywhites to a comfortable win over the Royals.
Agyemang, who joined from Gillingham the previous month, gave North End the lead after heading in Eddie Lewis' free-kick just after the quarter hour point.
Billy Davies’ side were then gifted an own goal when Andy Hughes stabbed Youl Mawene's free-kick past Marcus Hahnemann to give the home side a 2-0 lead going into half-time.
And then mid-way through the second half Agyemang then turned provider after beating two players and returning the favour to American international Lewis, who rifled home his shot from the middle of the penalty area.
After the game Davies said: “I rang Patrick last night to make sure he is settling in all right and everything is okay. I told him to be patient.
“He is learning, has a lot of good attributes and hopefully will improve. His first goal for us will be good for his confidence.
“This is an important period for us and the players have responded excellently. We have to keep our feet firmly on the ground and continue to work hard.”
Whilst visiting boss Coppell reflected: “I thought it was a bad day for us. We gave away a silly foul for the first goal. The second goal was like a freak and from then onwards we were always backs to the wall.
“We don't really do well when we put ourselves under pressure to force ourselves back into games. We didn't get going today. It isn't crisis time by any means. It's non-productive to dwell on that for too long.”
PNE line-up: Lonergan, Mawene, Lucketti, Davis, Alexander, Sedgwick (Oliveira, 77), McKenna (Etuhu, 77), O'Neil, Lewis, Cresswell (O'Neill, 84), Agyemang. Subs not used: Ward, Daley.
Reading line-up: Hahnemann, Hughes, Sonko, Ingimarsson, Shorey, Little, Harper, Sidwell (Newman, 74), Brooker (Convey, 56), Forster, Owusu (Goater, 71). Subs not used: Morgan, Young.
Attendance: 12,795
Referee: Mr Carl Boyeson (E Yorkshire)