Boss Joe Royle was disappointed to have conceded a last gasp goal and drop two points against Reading. The Town manager felt the Blues deserved to win on the balance of play.

Royle said his side fell asleep after going ahead in the first minute of injury time: "I think we switched off celebrating the win and we didn't get another touch of the ball.

"No one individual is to blame, but it is disappointing, although I would be more disappointed if we were not still top of the league. Overall I think we edged it and it looked like being the best 0-0 you have ever seen.

"Their keeper made a few great saves and how he got to the one from Shefki Kuqi I do not know. He must have telescopic arms!"

The Town manager singled out central defender Richard Naylor for particular praise: "We had no weaknesses and Richard Naylor was outstanding. He has a strong chance of being our player of the season. It was always going to be a hard game for us."

Steve Coppell said the two late goals were part of Reading's crowd-pleasing strategy: "That finish was all part of the master plan to keep the viewers on the edge of their seats!

"It would have been cruel to have decided the match on a mistake by my captain Graeme Murty. He is going to donate his bonus to Ivar for getting that late equaliser.

"We played very well in the first half and at half-time I knew they would chop and change to stop us doing what we were doing. It was yet another game where we had so many promising situations with things flying across the face of goal.

"I could not have pointed the finger at anyone and said they missed a good chance. Ipswich had an excellent spell midway through the second half and it's a good job my keeper was on top of his game.

"There are still 16 games to go and anyone can have a run of half a dozen good results on the bounce.

"But Wigan and Ipswich have only lost five games each in 30 and it looks like they might be the two to go up automatically."

Royals' skipper Murty admitted his error for Town's goal: "I got caught in two minds and the ball was just too close for me to clear it properly. When they scored from my mistake I wanted the ground to swallow me up."

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