Steven Whittaker made his long awaited comeback from injury as Norwich City's under-21 side slid to defeat at the Madejski Stadium last night.

The summer signing has been sidelined since damaging ankle ligaments in a friendly at Celtic over three months ago. He was one of three members of Chris Hughton's first team squad to get a run-out, with Jacob Butterfield and Ryan Bennett also in the starting line-up.

Whittaker almost made his mark with a goal with the score at 1-0, but his first half header came back off the woodwork and Reading went on to complete a comfortable win.

Dominic Samuel and Jordan Obita bagged a goal and an assist each as the young Royals marched towards three points.

Samuel grabbed his second and Reading's third of the night late on to put the game beyond any doubt with a neat finish from just inside the area.

• Reading: Federici; Arnold, Harte, Pearce, Morrison; Tshibola, Taylor, D'Ath, Obita (Lossaso 65); Samuel, Church. Subs not used: Webb, Henly, Macdonald, Keown.

• Norwich City: Rudd, McNeil, Barker, Whittaker, R. Bennett, Sheriff, Hall-Johnson (Morris 75), Clunan, Loza, Butterfield, King.

Subs not used: Gafaiti, Matthews, Browne, Hodd.