Defensive errors cost Burnley dear

Garreth O’Connor was also given a straight red card in the dying minutes after a tussle with Bobby Convey.

Burnley started with the same eleven that faced Derby on Saturday with the same five named on the bench again.

The game was only seven minutes old when we fell behind to a soft goal. Dave Kitson battled his way through a couple of challenges before the ball bobbled through to a lively Leroy Lita who instinctively stuck out a left boot to lob the ball over Coyne. Lita was sharper to the ball than any of the Burnley defence and it was disappointing how easy he found it to break through.

The away end, such as it was on a Bank Holiday a long way from home, fell quiet as we all wondered how we’d get back in the game from here. Burnley’s first half chance fell to James O’Connor as he exchanged passes with Hyde, unfortunately O’Connor scuffed a weak shot wide from 25 yards.

Burnley were beginning to move the ball around confidently but with little end result. Thomas and McGreal were sweeping up anything at the back, with Sonko doing a similar job at the other end.

This neat football finally created a chance on 20 minutes when McGreal picked out Noel-Williams who chested to Garreth O’Connor. O’Connor could only drag has shot well wide.

The referee was beginning to play to the home crowd’s cries and duly obliged by booking Jon Harley for a clean slide tackle on Little. It was a poor decision, and was only heightened when Sidwell got away with a very similar challenge just minutes later.

Most of Reading’s play was coming down the left as Bobby Convey was giving Mike Duff a very tough afternoon. After sending one shot wide, he broke away from the Burnley midfield, only for Wayne Thomas to make a tremendous covering tackle denying the US international.

Burnley got an equaliser from nothing just before half time. McGreal sent a long ball skywards, only for Noel-Williams to flick on beautifully to Akinbiyi.

The in form striker turned his man and fired in an excellent shot from the edge of the area to bring The Clarets level. It nearly got better minutes later as Akinbiyi chased a hopeful long ball forward only to see his angled shot go blazing over the bar.

Half time came with Burnley playing some neat football, however we didn’t look to have a cutting edge and Akinbiyi was often left isolated up front.

The second half had a lively start with Reading substitute Doyle heading wide from six yards after being left unmarked - we certainly didn’t learn our lesson from this.

As the half wore on Reading seemed to run out of ideas, consistently pumping long balls forward, which Thomas and McGreal were dealing with easily. However, Convey and Little combined with a short corner and the former picked out the unmarked Doyle to head home from close range. It was a dreadful goal to concede and it was a real blow as Reading had rarely threatened in the second half.

This seemed to kill any Burnley momentum and we struggled to get any sort of foothold for the rest of the game. John Spicer came on for his debut in place of Micah Hyde and gave the midfield energy but he struggled to make a real impact.

The rest of the game was marred by what looked to be a serious leg injury to Wayne Thomas, who had been having a good game. He tumbled under a challenge from Little and must have fallen awkwardly as he lay motionless on the floor. He was eventually carried off, and we can only wish him a speedy recovery.

Reading played keep ball for the remaining time as we looked jaded and out of ideas. Stupidly as time ticked away, Garreth O’Connor took a needless swipe at Convey and was shown a straight red. He may now miss three games, something we really can’t afford with our squad. We certainly need to cut out this ill discipline, it really is going to cost us.

At times today we played some decent stuff, albeit without much purpose or cutting edge. We were all too predictable as the final ball was either aimed at Gifton’s head or played down the flank to Ade who was often surrounded by two, and sometimes three blue and white shirts.

We struggled to contain Lita and Convey and at times gave Doyle far too much room to work with. Duff had a difficult afternoon in particular. He seemed to lack match sharpness and was also often let down by his wayward distribution.

With a free weekend next week, hopefully Burnley can get Elliott and Karbassiyoon fit again for Cardiff. Garreth O’Connor is clearly not a winger and Graham Branch struggled all too often today.

Ade is on fire at the minute but is still spending too much time pulling wide to try and give us some much needed width which we so badly lack without specialist wingers in the side.

Man of the match is a tough one this week with no player standing head and shoulders above the rest. Thomas and McGreal were decent enough but still went to sleep for the second goal.

James O’Connor had one of his better games in midfield and Ade worked tirelessly again and scored a classy goal. I’ll have to go with Micah Hyde again though who put his foot in where it hurt and was at the heart of most of what was good about Burnley today. We lost all impetus when he went off, he really is our leader at the moment and we can only hope his injury isn’t a bad one.