Coventry City 1 Reading 1

Coventry City hosted Reading in the npower Championship on Saturday afternoon with both sides looking to take three points from what promised to be an entertaining encounter.

Both the Sky Blues and the Royals have made slow starts to the season but went into the game on the back of differing results, City well beaten at Ipswich and Reading easing past Doncaster Rovers.

Slow starts to the season but a fast start to the match as Gary McSheffrey hammered in an opener for the home side which was equalised by Church’s well-taken goal for Reading within 10 minutes.

The Royals’ attacks in the first-half contained more of a threat and they won themselves a penalty which was fluffed tamely towards Joe Murphy. For City the main threat came from a rejuvenated McSheffrey who came close with two long-range efforts, the second of which fell to Chris Hussey who shot wide.

After the break it was the home side who forced the issue with the tireless running of Lukas Jutkiewicz causing Reading plenty of problems. Just when most of the crowd had settled for a point it was Jutkiewicz who won himself a penalty. Usually reliable from the spot the striker blazed over with the final kick of the game to make it two points lost for Andy Thorn’s men.

Thorn had plenty of positives to take once again however. At the back Richard Keogh and Martin Cranie were superb throughout while Conor Thomas did not look out of place.

Visiting boss Brian McDermott said afterwards: “I think if we score our penalty, we win the game. Their goalie made a good save but when they get a penalty with 10 seconds to go you fear the worst.

“I didn’t watch it but apparently it flew over the bar which is good news for us.

“Coventry will be disappointed so in the end it’s probably a better point for us than it is for them. If you miss a penalty with 10 seconds to go, it hurts.”

Thorn meanwhile went easy on Jutkiewicz, saying: “The kid has missed a pen – but how well did he do to win it?”