Reading manager Noel Hunt admitted to being frustrated at what he perceived as time-wasting tactics from Stevenage in a tame 1-1 draw.
Boro skipper Carl Piergianni scored for both sides with headers, giving the Royals the lead in the 49th minute but then atoning for his error in similar style 11 minutes later.
Reading, two points outside the play-off places, are unbeaten in 10 matches.
“From our point of view, it was a really frustrating match,” Hunt said.
“Stevenage came here to just slow the game down. That got us frustrated. The game was stop-start and we never really got into any rhythm throughout.
“Everything seemed to take an age to do.
“To be fair, Stevenage are probably happy to go away with a point. And that’s just so frustrating.
“Our boys put in a real shift with plenty of grafting and grinding. And we can never fault that.
“At the end of the day, we probably lacked that little bit of composure in the final third.
“We gave everything we had, we’ve had five games in 14 days and you could see that.
“We’ve got a lot of injuries at the moment, like everyone else, and that’s part and parcel of the journey.
“But I couldn’t fault our effort today, I’m just disappointed that we didn’t get the win.
“At least we’ve now got two weeks’ off. Give the boys a couple of days off because they’ve deserved it. They’ve worked so hard.
“It will be nice to spend some time with the family, recover and rest. And to come back refreshed.”
Stevenage lie 13th in League One.
“To come here and be disappointed with a draw probably says everything about our performance,” Boro manager Alex Revell said.
“We had 19 shots away from home compared to Reading’s seven and I thought we had enough chances to win the game.
“We conceded a poor goal that we shouldn’t have allowed to happen but we had some really good bits of play today.
“Once I get home and reflect on it, it was a really good performance.
“We should have scored in the first half, we should have been ahead.
“But after they scored, we dominated the game.
“I’m disappointed because these are the types of games you want to be competing in and we want to be in that top group (in League One).
“When you play like that, you need to win the game. It’s hard to win any game at this level.
“The fans were fantastic, too. They will have seen a really committed performance and some bits of really good quality.
“If we carry on like that until the end of the season, we’ll win a lot more games.”
