Burnley manager Vincent Kompany blamed his side for “not being dangerous enough” in attack after the Sky Bet Championship leaders had to settle for a 0-0 draw at relegation-threatened Reading.
With Sheffield United beating Cardiff 4-1 earlier in the day, Burnley could not clinch the title in Berkshire with a victory.
But they rarely looked like securing a win in an overall drab contest, with the only shot on target from either team coming in the 16th minute when Reading goalkeeper Joe Lumley saved well from Manuel Benson.
“With all our changes, the biggest challenge is to see whether your team is still going to look the same,” Kompany said. “Is it going to have that same kind of identity?
“Today, there wasn’t any issues on that. We recovered the ball quite well, we defended well and hence the clean sheet. And I felt that we looked after the ball okay.
“The only thing was that, when we got into the final third, we weren’t dangerous enough with the chances that we created. And we probably could have created a few more if the final ball had been better.
“Then, it was a mixture of Reading defending really well, putting their bodies on the line. You have to do these things when you’re fighting for your life. And also a mix of us being a little bit inefficient at times.
“But I can’t deny the fact that, actually, it’s not a bad result for us.
“I would be more worried if we didn’t create any chances but that wasn’t the case.
“There are other times when it has happened like this. Like when we played Blackpool away [a 0-0 draw last month].
“It was a similar kind of storyline, these teams are fighting for their lives. It’s just not as easy as you think it is. It’s something that you have to take into account.
“We still want to get results, we still want to be competitive. But it’s also important to see [other] players as well.
“We want to see them before the end of the season. We have to use this period of time well.
“We want to win as much as anyone else but we have one advantage between now and the end of the season – that we have a little bit of time on our hands.”
Noel Hunt, Reading’s Under-21 manager, took charge of his first game as interim boss since the dismissal of Paul Ince on Tuesday.
Although the Royals remain in the relegation zone, he was encouraged by the result and admitted to getting emotional as he looked around the stadium before the game.
“It’s probably the first time that it actually sunk in, what I was doing,” Hunt said. “Yes, I did get quite emotional out there. I didn’t think I would.
“But I had a look while the stadium was empty, to have a quiet moment and just take in the surroundings.
“And I thought: ‘Jeez, I’m actually managing this team’. It was the first time that I thought ‘this is it’.”
Of the 0-0 draw, Hunt said. “It couldn’t have gone much better? Well, we could have won the game! No, I’m being greedy there.
“I thought that we were really good. I thought that the boys were amazing – the shape that they kept, the discipline that they showed and how they moved.
“And I thought that when we countered, with a little bit more luck and little bit more detail, we could have hurt Burnley.
“But in terms of all that, it’s a good point for us.
“I don’t think we made massive changes. It was just a case of looking at the squad and trying to give the boys in there, who have been slogging away all season, a bit of a rest.
“We’ve got a thin senior squad in terms of who we have available. We’ve got a lot on the treatment table.
“So it was a case of just getting in some [fresh] legs to help them. They have had to put their bodies through it every week.”
