Bolton Wanderers v Reading: Immediate Reaction

First things first. The fact we haven't held on for a deserved win tonight at a cold and windy Macron Stadium isn't down to Mark Haywood, the figure of fun in the middle. But boy was he a badd'un!

An almost unbelievable three injuries in less than half an hour to Kevin McNaughton, David Wheater and then the boy wonder Zach Clough meant we had been decimated by half time. Luckily Reading FC had little know how or wherewithal to take advantage and we headed into the break after a non-descript first half footballing wise but for a half-chance at the back post for Liam Feeney. The boos rang around the stadium for Mr Haywood as he was blamed mainly for the lack of action taken for the challenge on Clough which left the young striker in a heap and unable to continue.

We came out with a renewed purpose and vigour after the half-time entertainment, which yielded another injury as one of the Zorb football participants ended up being wheeled away by St John's Ambulance!

Eventually a Matt Mills punt upfield caught the wind and turned into something Adam Le Fondre could finally make something of and that he did, spinning his marker and delivering a cute pull back from the byline which Eidur Gudjohnsen adeptly converted to give us a precious lead.

From then on we barely made much of an attempt to force a match winning second goal and bar from one barnstorming and battling run from the excellent Barry Bannan, we played for time just a little too early.

So for the 3rd time I can think of recently after James Henry's spectacular equaliser for Wolves and Troy Deeney's late winner for Watford, we endured a late, late blow as a hopeful smash forward deflected into the path of Jamie Mackie who turned and beat the redundant Amos at his near post to send the 17 Royals fans who bothered their arse coming to the game into delirium.

This really was a game that was there for the taking against a pretty woeful Reading side. I understand that many of the players were dead on their feet by the end but Saidy Janko had his marker on toast for most of the game and we really should of made more of our counters which to my surprise, Le Fondre wasted with some poor decision making.

Another defeat for Millwall, 3-0 at Middlesbrough means that we go 10 points clear of the bottom three and I really don't think we will get dragged into that particular fight with some eminently winnable home (and away) games coming up.

Still gutting all the same as Lennon conveyed on 'TalkSport' after the game calling the referee appalling and suggesting someone from the crowd should have replaced him at half time.

Guessing that they would have got injured too, such was our luck on this utterly, utterly frustrating night.