READING picked up a vital point to boost their Championship survival hopes after Tom Ince struck late away at AFC Bournemouth.
The Royals fell behind to an early Dominic Solanke goal, but hit back with a gutsy second-half display where they managed to take a point from the promotion hopefuls.
Despite gaining a credible point on the road, Reading’s gap to the relegation zone was cut to just two points after 22nd placed Barnsley beat Bristol City.
Goalkeeper Orjan Nyalnd came into the team to make his Royals debut, while Ovie Ejaria and Lucas Joao made their way into the starting line-up.
Top scorer John Swift missed out on the matchday squad again through illness.
Having made a disastrous start against Nottingham Forest on Saturday after conceding just 17 seconds into the match, Reading made a slightly better start on the South Coast.
But they did fall behind to another early strike when the prolific Dominic Solanke put Bouremouth in front after eight minutes.
It was a slick piece of play from the hosts that sliced open Reading’s defence. Solanke played the ball into the box to find Jefferson Lerma who played a return pass to Solanke and the striker applied the finishing touch to cap a fine move.
The Royals responded as they found some structure in the game and almost came up with an instant response.
Ovie Ejaria showed his creativity to find Tom Ince who curled in an inviting cross to the back post for Lucas Joao who was denied by a vital stop from Mark Travers.
Michael Morrison made sure he got his body in the way of Jaidon Anthony’s shot to protect his keeper.
Ejaria looked to pick the lock again when he thread a ball through to Ince who opted to shoot but lost his footing and was tackled.
Paul Ince’s men could have been punished further when former Reading academy product Jack Stacey burst into the box and had plenty of options, but Nyland got a hand to his cross to parry it out of danger.
The Cherries exerted more pressure in hope of finding a second goal only to be denied by a superb save by debutant Nyland. The Norwegian keeper got down low to his left to keep out Ryan Christie’s shot at the near post.
Ince was involved again down the right and found the overlapping run of Andy Yiadom, the full-back pulled the ball back for Andy Rinomhota who connected well but hit his shot too close to Travers.
Morrison did well to read the danger as he got across to intercept a through ball to Anthony just before the half-time whistle.
Scott Parker made a change to his team at the break by bringing Jamal Lowe on for Todd Cantwell.
The Cherries created a chance within the opening minute of the half when Lowe slotted the ball through to Christie but his shot lacked any power to trouble Nyland.
A golden chance came Reading’s way before the hour when Ince put in another enticing cross that looked as if it would fall for Joao to tap in from close range, but Nat Phillips got across to make a last ditch intervention to put it behind for a corner.
Reading had a spell of stained pressure in search of getting level when the ball fell for Josh Laurent on the right, he tried to pick out Joao in the middle but pulled the ball back behind the forward.
The visitors had a shout for a penalty when Ince’s crossfield ball found Ejaria who went down under a challenge in the box, but the appeals were waved away by the referee.
Ince made his first switch with 15 minutes to go as Yakou Meite replaced Joao.
With just seven minutes of the 90 to play, Reading were rewarded for their dominance and positivity in the second-half when Ince blasted a thunderous effort past Travers to equalise.
Bournemouth tried to salvage a winner with some late pressure, but Reading also had a chance to steal the points with a late free kick and a corner.
But the points were shared as Reading took a positive step with a much improved performance.
