Reading manager Noel Hunt believes his side won a cagey game of “who will blink first” as they edged to a hard-earned 2-1 home victory over League One play-off rivals Mansfield.
Reading went in front in the 17th minute through Mamadi Camara but Town levelled on the stroke of half-time from a Will Evans header.
Home central defender Tyler Bindon scored what proved to be the winner 10 minutes after the break with a spectacular overhead kick.
“I thought that the boys were superb today,” Hunt said. “We knew it was going to be that kind of game.
“You thought that it would sort of be who will be the first to blink in terms of who would make the first mistake, and it was us who got the first goal. I thought we were outstanding.
“To concede the equaliser right on half-time was disappointing. But we’ve got a young group of players who have got to learn – and they’re learning quickly.
“Mansfield are a good side who are well drilled. They’ve got experience and they’ve got youngsters.”
Unchanged Reading won their second home game in four days to stay in sixth place.
“The boys here deserve so much credit,” said Hunt.
“We asked them all to go back-to-back today and see if we could finish the year with a bang and give us a foothold into next year as well, and they answered the question really well.”
Mansfield’s unbeaten three-match league run came to an end as they dropped to 11th place in the table.
“It was a good game and it was just one of those days when it came down to fine margins,” Stags manager Nigel Clough said.
“We caused Reading a lot of problems and why not? That’s how we want to play.
“You could see the reaction of our supporters at the end. Everyone was giving us a standing ovation and singing.
“That means so much to us because they recognised as well what we’ve put in today.
“We took the game to Reading, we’ve given everything and just not quite come out on the right side of the result. But we went really close.
“Still, we’ve had an unbelievable 12 months. It’s certainly been entertaining.
“It’s a bit frustrating to finish the calendar year like today – with the result, not the performance.
“It was frustrating and felt a bit like when we lost five games on the spin a few weeks ago, which we didn’t deserve to.
“We’re still in that little room where we’ve got to do everything right and there were just a couple of little things today that stopped us getting a result.
“Overall, though, it’s been a brilliant 12 months.”
