3 things we clearly learnt about Reading FC after their 1-1 draw v Barnsley

Reading scored a crucial late equaliser yesterday afternoon as they held fellow relegation battlers Barnsley to a 1-1 draw, a major sucker punch for the latter in their quest for survival.

It looked set to be a good day for the hosts at Oakwell when Carlton Morris fired the ball across Orjan Nyland to put them 1-0 up in the fifth minute, giving the Tykes some early momentum with the visitors performing particularly poorly in the opening 45 minutes.

Unfortunately, Poya Asbaghi’s men were unable to capitalise on this with the Royals turning up the heat in the last quarter of the game and this pressure paid off when Josh Laurent slotted home from close range just under ten minutes from time.

The Berkshire outfit continued to push forward for a winner – but it was the hosts who nearly won it in the last minute when Callum Brittain’s close-range shot was blocked by Tom McIntyre.

Although a victory for either side would have been huge, a draw is still sufficient for the visitors considering they spent much of the game behind and they will now be hoping to make the most of their two home matches next week.

And with this relegation six-pointer done and dusted, we have selected three things we learnt about Paul Ince’s men.

Drinkwater can play an important part

Danny Drinkwater has come in for a fair bit of stick during his time at the Select Car Leasing Stadium so far and some of that has been justified due to under-par performances – but he also deserves a lot of credit when he steps up.

And he stepped up to the plate yesterday in what was a huge game for the Royals, intercepting the ball well and putting in some crucial challenges to prevent the Tykes from breaking away.

In the end, this proved to be crucial in stifling the