Reading players gave everything in Barnsley draw – Leam Richardson

Reading manager Leam Richardson felt his players “couldn’t have given any more” despite their League One play-off hopes suffering a setback in a 2-2 home draw with Barnsley.

The Royals went 1-0 up in 32nd minute through debutant defender Haydon Roberts but veteran Barnsley striker David McGoldrick equalised six minutes later.

Tykes skipper Adam Phillips gave the visitors the lead in the 67th minute with a deflected 20-yard effort, but Reading’s top scorer Jack Marriott levelled six minutes from time with his 11th goal of the season.

“I suppose we could have been better with the goals that we conceded,” Richardson said.

“But overall, could our players have given any more? No, I don’t think so.

“We had some really good moments and it’s now about can we get better and can we keep improving.

“We had some really good individual performances today and we were also very good collectively against a very good Barnsley side.

“They’ve had lads on the pitch today who Championship clubs are bidding four or five or six million pounds for them.

“Haydon (Roberts) got up and down left and that’s just the attributes I wanted to look forward to seeing in our team.

“This is a very good level, you’ve got to be adaptable and versatile. It’s a little bit like the Championship used to be, very tactical as well.

“With our players, some of them are learning on the job. It’s important that we have to give them that education daily and then maybe on a Saturday and a Tuesday.

“There is competition in the squad now and I’d rather have those headaches than those when I first came in the building (in late October).

“That’s the moment that we were in previous to me coming here. I’m sure that they had their challenges.

“But now we’ve got to push forward and make positive decisions.”

Reading slipped to 13th place, six points off the play-offs, while Barnsley are three points behind in 15th – but with multiple games in hand over all the teams above them.

Barnsley head coach Conor Hourihane said: “It was a game of very few chances and, to be honest, I didn’t think that we were great today.

“Reading are a decent side but I was a little disappointed, I felt that we never quite got going in the game.

“In general play, I don’t think that we played with the ball as much as we would like and how we have showed this season.

“We were pinned back a lot defensively by Reading, even though I thought that we defended our box quite well and limited their chances.

“But we didn’t create many chances, either. It was a game of very fine margins and there was not much in it. A draw was probably a fair result.”