A first-half strike from Ryan Edwards was enough to give Reading a victory against Exeter City.
Having had to endure a number of dire 1-0 defeats at St James's Park last season those fans who didn't make it through the gates for City's first pre-season game of the season could have been forgiven for thinking it was business as usual.
And for stages of the first half it seemed to be the case as a defensive lapse in concentration cost the Grecians the opening goal and then they struggled to create chances after that.
However, in the second half City were unfortunate not to get back on level terms, creating three good chances to level and having most of the territory and play against their Championship opponents.
City lined-up in a 5-3-2 formation for the whole game, but Tisdale used the friendly as an opportunity to give all of his squad a run out by naming an almost completely different starting XI for both halves.
In the first half Matt Oakley played the holding midfield role with talented youth academy player Alex Bryne given his first appearance for the first team alongside Arron Davies.
Tisdale also chose to start David Wheeler, who played most of last season on the wing, up front alongside Matt Jay.
It was Jay had the first shot of the game as he turned neatly in the box after five minutes and hit a right-footed effort that forced Adam Federici to push the ball over his crossbar for a corner.
However three minutes later Reading were in front when the ball got played forward to Ryan Edwards, who sprung the offside trap and hit a shot past Pym and into the bottom left corner of the goal.
There was little goalmouth action for the next 15 minutes with Reading growing into the match and having lots of territory without troubling Pym. The closest they came to grabbing a second when a low cross from the right from Nick Blackman was booted clear at the near posted by Danny Coles.
Another cross from Jordan Obita found the edge of the six yard box, but Jordan Tillson put just enough pressure on Pavel Pogrebnyak to stop him from getting a decent header on target.
In terms of an attacking intent at the other end though City rarely threatened and the Royals were good value for their half-time advantage.
Paul Tisdale made nine changes to the side at the break, with only Pym and Tillson keeping their place in the side.
Bennett captained the second half side before it was announced after the match that he would be the new skipper for the forthcoming season.
There was also a place at right-back for former Welsh under-21 international Christian Ribeiro, who is currently training with the City first team.
City started the second half brightly with Matt Grimes and Ollie Watkins combining well on the left, before the latter curled a cross to the back post that nobody was able to get on the end of.
Liam Sercombe then picked up the ball 40 yards from goal and made a direct run towards the edge of the box before hitting a fiercely-struck shot that was blocked by Alex Pearce.
Up the other end Pym had to be alert to grab a cross from Shaun Cummings as Craig Tanner lurked at the near post, but from that move City threatened again. They broke up the other end of the pitch and the lively Sercombe found himself with space to run into at the edge of the box. However, his ball into Nichols allowed Pierce Sweeney to get a block on the striker's shot and clear.
City continued to look the more dangerous of the two teams though as Jimmy Keohane broke down the left and hit a shot. Mikkel Anderson got a block on the effort, but the ball looked to be looping into the net until it hit the post. Unfortunately for Nichols' his close-range follow up effort was deflected over for a corner.
If City thought they couldn't get any closer to scoring without actually doing so they were wrong as moments later a right-wing cross from Ribeiro was headed towards goal by Grimes. Keohane looked to have flicked the ball over the line from close range but it was booted clear and then Nichols' follow up effort was blocked.
In a rare attack for Reading in the second half Jack Stacey stung the palms of Pym with a shot from the right hand side of the box with fifteen minutes of the match remaining.
At that point Tisdale introduced first-year pros Connor Riley-Lowe and Jason Pope to the action.
However, City were unable to create any further clear-cut chances and fell to a 1-0 loss.
Attendance: 1,211. Away: 202.
Exeter City, first half: Pym, Woodman, Baldwin, Coles, Oakley, Davies, Dawson, Byrne, Wheeler, Jay, Tillson. Second half: Pym, Butterfield, Bennett, Sercombe, Keohane, Ribeiro, Grimes, Moore-Taylor, Watkins, Nichols, Tillson. Subs: Connor Riley-Lowe, Pope
Reading, first half: Federici, Gunter, Morrison, Pogrebnyak, Obita, Hector, Blackman, Williams, Taylor, Kuhl, Edwards. Second half: Anderson, Kelly, Pearce, Akpan, Tshibola, Cummings, Sweeney, Tanner, Long, Griffin, Stacey. Subs: McArthy, Cooper.
