Wayne Thomas almost scuppered his team's assets only three minutes in when his short back pass was pounced upon by Dave Kitson, but the alert Ed de Goey reacted quick enough to prevent an opener.
The Potters then took the offensive but struggled to find any clear route to goal with both Darel Russell and Ade Akinbiyi being pushed wide by the away side's back line.
Both woodworks were rattled in the space of three minutes. Firstly on 32 when Clint Hill was spared after he misjudged a cross, sending the ball towards his own goal.
Shortly after, Lewis Neal supplied a swirling cross that was met by a flick-on from Gifton Noel-Williams but the towering forward could only watch as the ball bounced back off the crossbar.
Reading opened the scoring four minutes before the break when Nicky Shorey caught the Stoke defence napping by taking his free-kick quickly.
The 20-yard left-footed shot swung sweetly into de Goey's top right-hand corner to the home crowd's disbelief.
Akinbiyi could have had a hat-trick of headers in the second half, but the lack of power and excellent goalkeeping by Marcus Hahnemann denied him even an equaliser.
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