Luton and Reading end in a goalless draw

Luton and Reading played out a Championship draw in a game overshadowed by a serious injury to Hatters captain Sonny Bradley.

Royals could have taken control after the break – Andy Carroll headed wide while a dipping volley from outside the box was well saved by Tom Ince.

Luton almost won four minutes from time but Dan Potts put an effort over from 10 yards while Reading’s Tyrese Fornah saw a stoppage-time effort deflect narrowly over the bar.

The point sees Luton drop to 10th in the table, one place above Reading who are level with the Hatters.

Luton’s best chances came early on when Harry Cornick flashed a fourth-minute effort wide from the corner of the six-yard box before Joe Lumley saved efforts from Elijah Adebayo and Alfie Doughty.

There was a five-minute stoppage just before the half-hour mark as Bradley had to be stretchered off in considerable pain after injuring his right leg after challenging for a high ball.

Soon after play resumed, Reading almost capitalized on the upheaval in the Luton defense caused by Bradley’s injury when Tom Lockyer’s poor pass over the back line was pounced on by Ince and Ethan Horvath made a good stop to Yakou Meite’s low shot.

Reading should have been ahead after 42 minutes when an unmarked Carroll headed wide of the far post after a lovely cross from Junior Hoilett, while the former England striker curled a header just wide of the Luton post six minutes after the restart.

Luton’s defensive injuries were doubled when Lockyer had to go off for minutes after following a clash with Carroll, but they kept a clean sheet as both teams had chances late on – Potts should have scored after Cameron Jerome teed him up, while Shane Long saw a nick go wide before Fornah’s late effort.

Luton Town manager Nathan Jones told BBC Three Counties Radio:

“It was a hard-fought point, it was some robust Championship play and I thought we lived up to it.

“I thought we started really well, we had a couple of chances and stuff, but we never showed enough quality tonight.

“But it was a tough, tough game, Reading are hard to play against, they sit in and have big strong guys, they are direct and they play at their pace.

“We were tired of creating our tempo, but a really tough game and we had to defend our box with everything.”

Reading boss Paul Ince told BBC Radio Berkshire:

“I was happy with the clean sheet, disappointed that we weren’t clinical enough because we had some big chances today.

“In terms of the performance it was a great performance, keeping a clean sheet here is never easy, it’s a tight ground, the fans are on you, great atmosphere and Nathan has them going every game.

“To come here after the disappointment of Saturday we put in a fighting performance and at times we got the ball down and played some decent things, which was important.

“I thought we played some really good things in transition, I’m just disappointed we didn’t come away with three points.”