"There's not much between the two sides. It's typically a physical, high-tempo match but today we dominated possession and we've never done that before and we were able slow the game down.
"We proved we can play good football against top-10 opposition and that's a good place to start building from heading into the next World Cup and Olympic Games," Readings said.
In a first half of few chances, Amber Hearn gave New Zealand a seventh minute lead after robbing an England player of possession in their defensive third beating another and smashing home from the edge of the box to give the Football Ferns a 1-0 lead going into halftime.
England were 'knocking on the door' before substitute Ellen White equalised a minute after coming on as a substitute, firing home an angled drive from the edge of the box. Eniola Aluko edged England ahead two minutes later getting the decisive touch from a lofted a free kick into the Football Ferns penalty area.
Hearn came close to equalising with two minutes remaining as New Zealand pushed forward for a draw. With caution thrown to the wind, Toni Duggan sealed the win in the final minute of regulation when she beat Erin Nayler to the ball and passed into an empty net to complete the 3-1 defeat.
England will face Canada in the Cyprus Cup final with New Zealand awaiting the Group B results to find their opponent from Finland, Netherlands or Switzerland in the match for third place.
"We've got no preference on our opponent for our last match, the three sides all play a similar style," Readings said.
The match for third place will be played in Larnaca at 1.30am on Thursday morning (NZT).
New Zealand 1 (Amber HEARN 7')
England 3 (Ellen WHITE 71'; Eniola ALUKO 73'; Toni DUGGAN 90')
Halftime: 1-0