This was another very poor performance from the Royals. Once again Reading's ability to follow up a great performance with a shite one cost them points - at the end we deserved to lose all three and Oldham will be gutted by Reading's late injury time equaliser. Reading were brilliant on Wedensday night against Bradford, but it was the same old story when Oldham came to visit as Reading showed they can produce good football against the better sides and then struggle like anything against a side at the foot of the table. It was like watching a completely different side. Even a half decent performance with a win could have secured the manager's job for Alan Pardew after the mid-week heroics, but Madejski is not going to give the job to a manager who's side was booed off the pitch at half time by the home fans.

With Hunter out suspended in stepped Linvoy Primus back in the centre of defence. Up front McIntyre earnt another start alongside Forster. However, Reading were complete crap for the opening 45 minutes. Thankfully so were Oldham. It was hardly a suprise when the teams went in level at 0-0 at half time. But it could have been so different if Caskey's had made the most of his penalty attempt - which was the first shot of the game after 10 minutes of play.

Nicky Forster supplied a rare piece of entertainment to set up the penalty. After winning the ball on the left he started legging to towards the box from wide on the left, shoulder to shoulder with an Oldham defender. He was held back just outside the box before working his way just inside the side of the area where he was eventually brought to the floor by the challenge. The referee didn't look like he was going to give it, but the linesman flagged. After a brief protest up stepped penalty-king Darren Caskey to give Reading the lead. Or so we thought. He did one of his traditional penalties but took it to extremes and completely shafted it up. Up he stepped, stopped in his run up, the keeper went down, diving to his left, Caskey continued and instead of changing his kick to the opposite side he side-footed a weak penalty right at the keeper. Bollocks.

The rest of the first half was pretty uneventful. Oldham appeared to have come for the draw and looked well on course to do it. They packed their defence and marked us out of the game very effectively. On Wednesday they were all finding space and we were distributing the ball all over the place, we were making use of the wings and whipping in loads of crosses. Against Oldham we did none of that. Gray was occasionally standing in space but never got the ball. Caskey's distribution skills were well below usual standard and the rest of the team were content simply to hoof the ball anywhere up the pitch, without looking. The number of balls played on the floor in front of players running onto it I could have counted on the fingers of one hand. Defensively we seemed sound, but after winning the ball we did nothing with it but hoof it. Perhaps all the players were completely worn out after the Bradford heroics - but we just weren't getting the basic things right.

Forster created the other chance of the half - this time down the other wing. Forster twisted past a few players down the right wing - took it right to the end and then cut diagonally back on himself into the box. Rather than bring him down he was allowed to play the ball across this time. After a deflection Andy Bernal found himself with the ball in the middle of the area about 6 yards out. But Skippy was only able to lob the ball over the bar and onto the top of the net. The only other Reading attempts were a long range shot from Gray that needed a save and a weak Gurney effort. Nothing to get excited about.

Reading had to wait until well into the second half before winning their first corner of the game - which showed the lack of direct attacking football we'd all expected after Wednesday night. Despite everything Reading really should have been well in the lead before Oldham eventually took the initiative.

Although we weren't using the wings we did make a couple of chances right down the centre. Caskey played a great ball that split the defence right through the middle that Forster ran onto into the box. Forster's shot was saved by the keeper and came right back to him with the defence running back to pack the Oldham area. Forster's second shot was blocked giving Scott, who had replaced McIntyre who had limped off earlier, the chance to put it into the back of the net. Scott had a go, but found his shot blocked by the crowd of Oldham defenders too. Moments later we could have taken the lead again. Forster was up to his usual tricks out wide on the right and played a decent cross to Scott in the box. Scott's header was tipped over for the corner.

Perhaps slightly against the run of play Oldham took the lead with about 20 minutes left to play. The ball was played from the middle out to the right side of the box where the Oldham forward found himself all by himself with just Howie to beat. It appeared to have shades of offside about it, but unfortunately it looked like Linvoy was playing about 3 or 4 of them onside by his position over the other side of the area. The ball was buried into the opposited corner of the net and it was 1-0 to the away side. And from then on Oldham just got stronger and stronger. Howie made a couple of vital saves to keep the score at 1-0.

As the game entered injury time Oldham should have been more than a goal up. For some reason the referee continued to let the game continue despite the lack of injuries during the half, which allowed Reading a late equaliser. Only about half of the home fans were left after thousands had walked out in disgust during the last five minutes of the normal ninety. What they missed was a late attempt by Reading to get something from the game and a well taken goal from Polston. After two late corners Polston got in two headers, one on target needing a save. And with 94 minutes showing on the clock he was there again on the edge of the area. The ball was flicked on and Polston buried it from the edge of the box. 1-1 and at that stage we really didn't deserve it. The game restarted and for a moment it looked like we might steal all three points, but Forster was unable to get any power into his shot. So 1-1 at the end and the late goal had done little to cheer up the rapidly deminishing number of home fans.

Graham