Some over-zealous refereeing brought an otherwise dull encounter to life midway through the first half when Pogrebnyak theatrically tumbled after an innocuous challenge and received a second yellow to reduce the Royals to ten men. Albion barely had time to press home their advantage before referee Scott flashed a second red card to Ulloa for a dangerously high challenge on Pearce to even things up. He couldn’t get his card out quick enough. The second half produced some better football from both sides, and as the game became stretched, chances arrived. Fortunately for Reading Alex McCarthy was in good form and made sure Reading did not concede for the second successive game and both sides had to settle for a point.

The first half was extremely poor. Brighton dominated possession (61%) but a high proportion of their passes were either backwards or sideways. Reading were also happy to play safe passes across the back but looked less comfortable on the ball throughout the team. Le Fondre must despair at the number of times he is expected to compete for long balls in the air against towering defenders. He was sent clear by a Drenthe clearance early in the game but four Albion defenders quickly denied him the time or space to work an opening. Pogrebnyak, as always, looked too slow to pose any threat to the opposing defence. Reading playing a 4 4 2 formation but without the wide players to make it work failed to create any openings.

The second half was illuminated by a sparkling example of attacking play from left back by Wayne Bridge having replaced Kelly at half time. It was pity there was nobody capable of converting his crosses into a much needed goal. Robson-Kanu also came on and caught the eye with some good touches playing behind Le Fondre. For a while the Royals mounted pressure on the visitors defence with Gunther and Bridge pushing forward down the flanks. Karacan and Guthrie worked hard but their passing lacked penetration. I am not sure where Williams was playing but he had little impact. Karacan tested Kuszczak with a couple of strikes and Pearce managed a fairly tame shot on target which the Albion ‘keeper almost spilled.

Brighton had their spells of pressure too and Lua Lua looked the most likely player to create a goal. McCarthy had to make good saves from substitute Barnes (twice) and Calderon. The Reading defence looked vulnerable on the flanks. Pearce and Morrison may be slow but they defended well when it mattered. The referee produced fewer cards in the second half and the game petered out to the inevitable draw. I think Albion were understandably more satisfied with the result than the home side. As for Reading, there was little to suggest serious challenge for promotion at this stage. Their passing and movement was laboured and predictable and lacked any kind of spark, but with only one defeat, they are remarkably only just outside the play off positions. Brian McDermott will be looking forward to Wednesday for many reasons.
John Wells

Our biggest problem is the huge distances between players when we attack, crossing when the nearest player is miles away is difficult and just passing to someone who can only have a distance effort is just too easy to defend against.

Drenthe is sure to have defenders double up on him so where is the pass on close by to help isolate and split up opposition defences? Same for most of the forwards, little movement and miles away from each other to really get in a dangerous position. Defence and midfield look plenty good enough for this division - Brighton edged it but they're hardly world beaters like most others in the Championship including Reading.
Royalclapper

Bridge was decent, McCarthy was excellent when required. Apart from that very poor. Even when we had space to go forward into we chose to pass sideways or backwards giving Brighton time to execute their gameplan of getting people behind the ball and hitting us very neatly on the break. Tactics were really shit today and didn't fit the team we put out.
Cureton's Volley

Just once in a while you go to a game and really wonder why you bother to go to football at all. Today was one of those. Two teams playing tippy tappy football without any cutting edge. But Brighton definitely the better of the two and unlucky not to get all three points.

The referee was spot on in all his decisions by the letter of the law, but showed zero common sense. If you start booking every player for the slightest infringement then you will ruin a game and he did that very effectively. By the letter of the law though he cannot be faulted. Both Pog's bookings were correct and although the Brighton sending off probably only merited a yellow - a red was assured because of the way he had refereed the game from the start.

RFC toiled and it says it all when once again your keeper is MOTM. We looked slightly better with the introduction of Bridge and HRK, but still never looked like scoring. Cannot be bothered to give ratings. If I did Pog would get a 0 for complete stupidity and everyone else is about a 5. No one outstanding and no one was terribly poor.

Now I fear that we will be shown up as the poor side that we have become on Wednesday by a highly motivated Leeds side. I can see the fans really turning on both Anton and even Adkins then. Sadly I fear a defeat on Wednesday is all but inevitable unless a miracle happens. If so Brian really will have had the last laugh.
andrew1957

Reading's very ordinary form remains a mystery. Against Yeovil they played ok but created virtually nothing. At Peterborough they seemed to be dreaming at the back, with Gorkss and Federici reminding us what happened last season in the Premier. But perhaps worst of all was the Brighton game: on paper the team looks ok - it's just when they get out on the pitch they seem to have forgotten what they're supposed to do! Royston has a few fancy touches with no end result; the continued omission of McAnuff seems baffling (where was McCleary?) and Pog's nightmare continues. Even without the red card (which was harsh) he'd hardly set the game alight. The ref ruined it for the paying public, really - but Reading had no shape or zip, and without McCarthy's heroics (again) we could have lost 3-0 easily. I fear a setback against Leeds on Wednesday will see the knives out for poor Nigel; in which case, whom would we like to see replace him in the hot seat..? It's deja vu all over again - Brian.
Hugh Terry

Reading and Brighton had to play the entire second half with 10 men after their strikers were ordered off by referee Graham Scott.

Pogrebnyak was first to go, collecting a second yellow card for a dive, and Ulloa followed for a ridiculous high challenge just before half-time.

And a stalemate was the predictable outcome as both teams ploughed on for the rest of the match without their main frontmen - not that either had looked much like scoring with 11 players.

Royston Drenthe may be proof that Real Madrid do not always get it right when buying wingers, but the Dutchman did at least provide the occasional rare threat for Reading in the early stages.
The Express

The play-off places, of course, would have been Reading’s minimum target for this season but they never looked remotely like promotion challengers before or after Pogrebnyak’s dismissal.

“I thought we were very poor in the first half,” Nigel Adkins, their manager, said. “In the cold light of day we’ll establish why. We were nowhere near where I’d like us to be.”

That was partly because Brighton refused to let them have much of the ball, and the Seagulls should have pushed home their advantage in possession when Pogrebnyak had his first start of the season ended after 32 minutes, shown a second yellow card for a blatant dive after an earlier booking for a trip – of sorts – on Kazenga LuaLua. The Russian’s fall after his arm had been pulled by Keith Andrews was over-theatrical, although Adkins felt there had been a foul.
The Independent