Liverpool lost their first match of the season in a shock defeat at the hands of Reading in their Premiership clash on Saturday.

Reading had taken a shock lead through a Stephen Hunt penalty but Liverpool pulled level in the 28th minute through Steven Gerrard. However two goals in seven minutes by Kevin Doyle and James Harper saw Reading upset the odds by collecting all three points from the fixture.

Reading took the lead in the 17th minute when Brynjar Gunnarsson was brought down in the penalty area by Jamie Carragher and Hunt kept his nerve to convert from the penalty spot. Liverpool were dominating the possession but without any luck before Gerrard equalized in the 28th minute.

Fernando Torres latched on to a long goal kick by Pepe Reina before passing the ball to Gerrard who avoided Hunt's challenge before smashing the ball past Marcus Hahnemann and into the net. Liverpool players wanted for a penalty when Ibrahima Sonko tackled Torres but the referee rightly turned down the appeals with Sonko getting a part of the ball.

Liverpool came close to taking the lead early in the second half but Torres headed his chance inches wide of the target. Gerrard came very close to grabbing a second goal of the game but his shot smashed against the bar before going out.

Reading made the visitors pay for the misses by taking the lead in the 60th minute when Doyle prodded home a curling free kick by Nicky Shorey to score his team's second of the night. And the hosts doubled the lead seven minutes later when Harper took control of Convey's clever pass and raced past Riise before rounding Reina and passing the ball into an empty net.

With Liverpool unable to hit the target, Reading registered their first victory against one of the "big four" of the Premiership, lifting themselves to 12th in the league table.