JAAP Stam says patience was the key to Reading FC beating Cardiff City for their first away win of the season.

Yann Kermorgant struck an 89th minute winner in South Wales to secure three welcome points on the road for the Royals.

Stam's men had the edge over Paul Trollope's hosts for most of the game, but looked like they would have to settle for a point when Kermorgant notched his first Championship goal of the campaign to snatch a late victory.

Stam beamed: "That’s what we’re looking for. Wins.

"I think we deserved it with how we played. We had a lot of possession, there was a lot of movement within the team – we’ve been working hard on that since the start of the season.

“We haven’t always got the win when we've played well, but on Saturday we did.

“We created chances against a side who are physically strong, who didn’t give much space away for us to pass the ball through.

"But we kept our patience. They got frustrated, especially in the second half, and that’s what we wanted.”

Reading, with new signing Tyler Blackett and Liam Moore making their league debuts, also kept their first clean sheet since a 1-0 home win against Plymouth on the opening day of the season.

And ex-Manchester United and Netherlands defender Stam was full of praise for the way in which they stopped Bluebirds scoring.

"We were very sharp in how we defended,” he said. “After the first 15 minutes, they pressed us a bit higher up, won the ball in midfield and got themselves in front of goal a couple of times.

“But after that we picked it up and controlled the game, especially in the second half.

"Away from home, you know it’s not going to be easy because your opponent wants the ball. But I think we did very well. We created chances and it soon looked like we’d only need that one goal.”

The win moved Reading up to 15th in the Championship table going into a fortnight's international break.

They return to action on Friday, September 9 when they host Ipswich Town at Madejski Stadium in a televised clashed (8pm ko, live Sky Sports).

And Stam believes his players are becoming more and more comfortable with the new system he has brought in.

"I’m very proud of the players and what they’ve learned in the last couple of weeks with the passion that they put into the game and the effort they have put into a different style of play,” he added.

"If you keep on doing it, keep believing in it, keep working hard and keep your patience, eventually you’ll start winning games.

"Like everybody, I want to have success. Everybody wants to win games, climb higher in the table with their team. So I am delighted."

Wales full-back Chris Gunter and Republic of Ireland duo Paul McShane and Stephen Quinn are among the players set to depart for international duty this week.

Stam stated: "We’re not used to having a break to be fair, because the games kept on coming.

“It would be nice to have an extra couple of days training with the complete group, because you want to improve the style of playing.

"But players have been called up for international duty and that’s a good thing as well.

“Although it means we can’t work on our way of playing, we can improve players individually - and that’s what we’re going to be doing over the next two weeks.

"We’ll still be working very hard, but we might get a couple of days off as well.”