Barnsley 1 Reading 1: Survival platform for Reds

“We are trying to build something here, build some momentum, and that’s the start of it,” said Flitcroft, whose side are one of four teams, including Sheffield Wednesday, on five points, although the Owls have a game in hand.

“I’m delighted with the way we played, it’s what we are trying to represent as a football team, a football club.

“That performance was against Reading, they’ll be in the top three all season, no doubt about that and we have made a superior team look very ordinary.”

Pressure had been mounting on Flitcroft after picking up just four points from their opening nine Championship games.

But after Hal Robson-Kanu had fired Reading in front, the former Rochdale striker lashed home a deserved equaliser for a Barnsley side who played nothing like a side embroiled in a relegation struggle.

The Reds gave Oakwell debuts to goalkeeper Jack Butland and midfielder David Fox, while Jason Scotland started after scoring in the last two games. There was a place for Peter Ramage, the defender injured in the pre-match warm-up at Leicester City.

That Foxes defeat was the fourth consecutive loss for the Reds and has left all at Oakwell a little dazed, even the official team-sheet last night had Watford as the visitors.

Not that anyone at Oakwell would want reminding of their last home outing, a 5-1 humiliation to the Hornets.

But the Reds started brightly, Jacob Mellis driving into the box and picking out Scotland, only for the striker to struggle to get a shot off as he tumbled backwards under a challenge.

David Perkins tried his luck from 25 yards, but his deflected shot was safely gathered by Reading goalkeeper Alex McCarthy.

Sloppy play from the visitors at the back was inviting Reds pressure, Mellis seizing on a loose ball to send Scotland scampering away and his long-range shot was well held by McCarthy.

With Scotland and O’Grady up front in a two-pronged attack, it was refreshing tactics by Flitcroft in a division where playing a lone frontman is the current vogue.

O’Grady then pulled a sumptuous far-post cross out of the air before firing goalwards, but he failed to get sufficient power behind his shot.

Butland – on loan from Birmingham City – had not been troubled in the first 25 minutes and on a rare Reading foray into the Reds box, the two wingers combined as Garath McCleary picked out Robson-Kanu, who stabbed the ball wide.

Successive bookings for Mellis and Scotland were handed out as the visitors finally found time on the ball to impose their slick passing style. Yet it was Scotland who again came closest to opening the scoring when a swift counter-attack ended with the striker dragging his shot wide.

Norwich City loanee Fox had been quiet but he tested McCarthy after a neat lay-off from O’Grady, but it was straight at the goalkeeper from 22 yards, then Scott Wiseman’s fierce drive was deflected wide.

No goals in the first 45 minutes, and with snooker players Ken Doherty and Ryan Day – playing in qualifiers at the town’s Metrodome – performing a half-time penalty shoot-out, it was a case of both sides being seemingly snookered.

Butland came to Barnsley’s rescue five minutes after the break when Adam Le Fondre finally sparked into life. The former Rotherham United striker broke the offside trap, but could not beat the England goalkeeper.

If that was a warning, Barnsley failed to heed it, as Robson-Kanu fired beyond a stranded Butland just moments later to stun the Oakwell faithful in the 9,084 crowd.

Barnsley needed an immediate response and came close when Fox’s 24-yard free-kick – after Paddy McCourt was chopped down – looked on target, only for it to hit the Royals wall and fly over the crossbar. It was the first of three similar-placed central free-kicks which all came to nothing.

Butland was swiftly off his line to deny a lurking Le Fondre, before a fingertip save also denied the player known as Alf, while Marcus Pedersen was thrown on by Flitcroft to try and engineer an equaliser.

The Reds had an amazing let-off when Alex Pearce somehow contrived to miss from point-blank range after arriving late at the back post on a Reading corner.

And the hosts took full advantage as O’Grady was picked out with a superb cross by Fox, before choosing his spot and planting a low drive into McCarthy’s bottom left-hand corner.

It was just reward for the striker’s selfless toil, although he could have earned even greater glory. O’Grady kicked fresh air as he missed a similar right-flank cross which would have seen Barnsley pinch all three points.

Substitute Tomasz Cywka had McCarthy scrambling to pick up a long-range shot which squirmed from his grasp as the Reds pushed for a winner in five minutes of stoppage time.

Barnsley: Butland, Wiseman, Kennedy, Cranie, Ramage, McCourt, Perkins, Mellis (Cywka 77), Fox (Dawson 83), O’Grady, Scotland (Pedersen 67). Unused substitutes: Hassell, O’Brien, Dawson, Noble-Lazarus.

Reading: McCarthy, Gunter, Pearce, Baird, Morrison, Kelly, McCleary (McAnuff 69), Guthrie (Akpan 73), Robson-Kanu, Pogrebnyak, Le Fondre (Sharp 88). Unused substitutes: Federici, Gorkss, Cummings, Obita.

Referee: C Sarginson (Staffs).