There was frustration, encouragement and excitement in fairly equal measure for the travelling faithful in a defeat which cost 10-man Huddersfield Town top spot in the Championship.
Norwich City took over at the summit after David Wagner’s side, watched by a fine turn-out of 1,349 in a 17,030 crowd, suffered following the 25th-minute dismissal of Rajiv van La Parra.
Jonathan Hogg saw red on the same pitch last season, when Town, two up at the time, went on to lose 5-2 in an FA Cup third-round replay.
On this occasion, Reading made their breakthrough shortly before half-time, when keeper Danny Ward managed to get his hands to Roy Beerens’ deflected shot but couldn’t prevent it going in.
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However the home team’s third successive win in all competitions and fifth in six games was far from routine, because battling Town created enough chances to have got a draw.
Boss David Wagner argued they might even have snapped Reading’s unbeaten sequence, which is now at eight games.
And they would certainly have had a better chance had home right-back Chris Gunter also been dismissed by whistler James Linington for his 55th-minute foul on Nahki Wells.
There were no real complaints about van La Parra’s sending off, even if his first caution for a 23rd-minute foul on Jordan Obita looked a tad harsh.
The Dutchman then won a free-kick, only to be shown another yellow card, then swiftly a red, for a show of petulant dissent, which seemed a bit unnecessary given the situation and his earlier booking.
Whistler Linington was clearly having no truck with any verbals, so it was disappointing to see both Chris Lowe and Elias Kachunga later cautioned for that reason.
Lowe’s yellow card was his fifth of the season, as was skipper Mark Hudson’s for a foul on Danny Williams.
LOOK: Reading FC v Huddersfield Town, 24.09.2016: Match Action from the Madejski Stadium
And like van La Parra, the pair will also be suspended against Rotherham United on Tuesday, when Lowe’s rival left-back Tareiq Holmes-Dennis could make his Town debut.
But back to Gunter, who might well have become the third Reading player to take an early bath in as many matches after he illegally halted Wells’ breakaway.
Instead the Wales international escaped with a caution as the referee apparently decided he wasn’t the last defender, something others disputed.
Reading retained their numerical advantage, not that you’d have known it, because they often looked panicky under Town’s spirited onslaught.
Wagner, who brought on Harry Bunn for Kasey Palmer in the immediate aftermath of the sending off, played his part by making a double change after 80 minutes.
Michael Hefele came on for Lowe and substitute Bunn was himself replaced by Martin Cranie as the boss continued to urge defenders up front at various times.
It was all richly entertaining, and both Wells and Kachunga had opportunities to grab an equaliser, but couldn’t make them count.
Town have now been beaten in both their last two away games (after the setback at Brighton and Hove Albion).
But both were by 1-0 scorelines and both could easily have ended up as draws, so there is no reason to be too downcast.
The home derby against Rotherham provides a quick chance to get this loss out of the system, and Wagner will have been formulating his plan on the long trip back from Reading.
Having named an unchanged starting side and bench in Berkshire, he has to make at least three changes against the Millers.
It’s going to be interesting to see who plays, who is skipper in Hudson’s absence, and how the team respond.
