Manchester City midfielder Gareth Barry has admitted that his side were starting to panic before he scored a 92nd-minute winner against Reading yesterday.

Barry secured the win over the league's bottom club in dramatic fashion to close the gap between themselves and Manchester United to three points.

The England international revealed that relief was one of the overwhelming emotions he felt after scoring the goal, as it prevented them dropping further points at home.

"I am relieved and delighted at the same time, to get a goal that late. You are starting, probably, to panic, thinking we are going to drop some big points at home again," said Barry.

"It is difficult, especially when you don't get the breakthrough early. The longer the game goes on the more you could see the Reading players growing in confidence.

"They started to believe they could keep us out for the 90 minutes. Even towards the end they were believing they could maybe get the winning goal."

The goal was Barry's first senior goal since August 2011.