With the home fans roaring them on Reading took an early lead with a goal of the highest quality. Casadei found Joao with a perfectly weighted pass in the box, and Joao's awareness and deft touch set up Carroll to strike cleanly past Ruddy. It was the perfect start for the Royals following their inevitable six point deduction earlier in the week. Sadly they were unable to build on their early advantage. City levelled the scores with finish of equally high quality of their own midway through the first half. Jutkiewicz headed Khadra’s cross past Lumley with power and precision giving the Reading 'keeper no chance. There was little to choose between the teams and no further goals. The draw suited City more than Reading. Dropping two points at home in one of the more winnable remaining games, combined with the points deduction, resulted in the Royals dropping into the bottom three facing a run of very difficult games to finish the campaign.

Goals have proved hard to come by for Reading recently and in spite of playing Meite, Carroll and Joao up front Reading struggled to create chances again. Over dependence on finding Andy Carrol with long balls from the back is not creating the situations in the box to take full advantage of his prowess in the air. There were flashes of quality from Fornah, Casadei and Joao but overall there was a lack of creativity and movement throughout the side. Yiadom and Fornah got behind the City back four down the left particularly in the first half but the final ball was not quite good enough.

Paul Ince has clearly focussed on maintaining a solid defensive shape out of possession, but in spite of that clean sheets have always seemed hard to come by all season. This afternoon Jutkiewicz was as dominant in the air as Carroll but City had Khadra tormenting Mbengue on the left wing which is where their equaliser came from. The quality of the ball into the box from Reading was noticeably poor. The ball often came in low and was easily cut out or floated in high which a ‘keeper of Ruddy’s presence and quality gathered comfortably.

Reading’s cause was not helped by one of the poorest refereeing performances I have seen for a long time, and there have been a few this season, from the very inexperienced Scott Oldham. (I think it was only his second game in charge.) Blatant fouls were ignored leaving both sets of players and fans gasping in disbelief. His ineptitude peaked after half time. Fornah chased back, won the ball cleanly and was shown a yellow card. It was clearly not even a foul never mind a serious foul. The only other card was given to City’s Bielek for speaking out of turn. I have no idea what he said but it almost certainly abusive and accurate! It was a relief when Oldham had to leave the pitch due to injury to be replaced by the fourth official.

Meite huffed and puffed all afternoon with little impact. He does not look fit, he has lost a lot of pace and his touch was poor. He kept drifting inside removing the option of wide in attack. Ince really should have given him the hook earlier allowing Azeez more time on the pitch. Fornah was clearly frustrated and disappointed at being taken off and rightly so.

As full time approached Reading abandoned their defensive shape and took risks desperately searching for a much needed winning goal and they did create opportunities. Hendrick had sniff of chance in the six yard box. Sarr had a shot blocked, Carroll dragged a shot wide from inside the box, and a volley from Azeez whistled past the post with Ruddy rooted to the spot. City were clearly happy with a point in the closing stages and were content to sit back and hit Reading on the break.

There is enough quality in the squad for Reading to escape relegation this season, but they are going to need to raise their game and need results elsewhere to go their way.

John Wells