A brace from Matt Ritchie and a third from Yann Kermorgant have given Bournemouth's late push for a Championship playoff place a boost as they comfortably lead sixth-placed Reading.

Ritchie's opening goal came on seven minutes when he latched on to Lewis Grabban's ball before tucking his effort beyond Alex McCarthy.

However, the Cherries came close to falling behind themselves in a whirlwind opening to the game that saw Jordan Obita and Kaspars Gorkss both go close for the visitors within the opening two minutes.

Once Bournemouth took the lead, they looked more likely to score again when Grabban saw his effort saved by McCarthy.

Moments later, the hosts did extend their advantage when Ritchie took aim at the Hoops goal before finding the bottom left corner of the net.

Reading looked desperately to find a way back into the game, but Pavel Pogrebnyak's effort midway through the half was the only shot of note for Nigel Adkins's side.

Bournemouth came close to putting the game beyond the Royals with Kermorgant and Grabban twice going close to scoring a third.

On the stroke of half time, Bournemouth appeared to put the result beyond doubt when Kermorgant headed Simon Francis's cross into the net.