Leroy Lita's double earned Reading a place in the last 16 of the FA Cup for the first time in nine years as they gained revenge for last season's exit at the hands of Birmingham City with a 3-2 victory at St Andrews.
Royals boss Steve Coppell fielded a much-changed line-up but the clinical finishing of Lita, who has now scored 10 goals this season, killed off Blues.
Dave Kitson marked his first start since the opening day of the season with the opening goal for Reading but City were left to rue spurning a host of opportunities of their own with Cameron Jerome the main culprit.
Bruce will be hoping new £3million capture Rowan Vine can provide that finishing power if they are to achieve their main goal of a return to the Barclays Premiership at the first attempt.
Reading fielded only four of the side which beat Sheffield United last weekend but one of the replacements, Andre Bikey, sparkled at the heart of their defence.
The visitors were quickly into their stride and Blues goalkeeper Maik Taylor clung onto a low 25-yard drive from Seol Ki-Hyeon.
The Royals needed only three minutes to go ahead through Kitson who has been out for nearly six months with a knee problem.
Seol made a pacey run to the by-line and swept past want-away defender Matthew Upson before cutting a low ball back across the Birmingham box.
Kitson was the quickest to react and escaped the challenge of Martin Taylor before drilling a left-footed shot into the corner of the net.
Jerome squandered a golden chance to put the home side back on level terms when he found himself completely unmarked following a Sebastian Larsson free-kick.
But the former Cardiff player failed to make a clean contact on his header when he looked certain to score and Royals goalkeeper Adam Federici was able to block his attempt.
DJ Campbell showed neat control when latching onto a pass from Bruno N'Gotty 25 yards from the Reading goal and his shot on the turn was only just wide with Federici scrambling across his line.
Fabrice Muamba forced Federici to make a good save away to his left from a powerful 25-yard drive. Then Campbell attempted to out-run Sam Sodje when Jerome was well placed and the Reading defender produced a fine tackle to halt his progress.
Jerome screwed his shot past the far post when he should have at least hit the target after Larsson had spotted his run.
Birmingham were made to pay for their lack of sharpness in front of goal when Lita doubled Reading's lead after 41 minutes.
Bobby Convey's persistence paid off when he shrugged off the challenge of Birmingham skipper Damien Johnson on the left flank and his low cross picked out Lita at the near post who, despite the attention of Martin Taylor, was able to stab the ball home.
Birmingham needed to strike quickly after the restart to give themselves a chance of getting back into the game and within a minute Taylor had given them a lifeline.
Jerome stabbed the ball out to the former Blackburn player and his left-footed 20-yard drive curled past Federici into the corner of the net.
Birmingham were now in the ascendancy and DJ Campbell just failed to convert a low cross from Jerome.
Kitson became the first player from either side to be yellow-carded after 57 minutes after the second of two fouls in quick succession on Upson. Federici followed Kitson into the notebook for time-wasting when taking a goal-kick.
Federici produced a fine save to finger-tip a dipping volley from Gary McSheffrey around the post as City pressed for an equaliser.
Lita could have wrapped up victory for Reading but headed inches wide from Convey's cross. But he made no mistake with nine minutes remaining when he tucked away a pass from substitute Simon Cox.
Larsson scored a consolation free-kick for Birmingham deep into injury-time.
