Reading defender Michael Morrison claims Bristol City ended their 2-1 win over the Royals feeling "very lucky" after just about withstanding a late comeback from Veljko Paunovic's relegation-threatened side.
City recorded their third straight win at Ashton Gate to open up a healthy 17-point buffer on the bottom three, with Reading just two points above 21st-placed Peterborough United, as Antoine Semenyo and Morrison's own goal secured the win on Wednesday night.
However, having largely dominated for much of the game and in a position of relative comfort, a soft penalty conceded by Timm Klose in the 73rd minute as he appeared to clip Tom Ince - which, at the time and even more so on replay, looked generous - gave Reading a foothold back into the game.
Substitute John Swift slammed in the spot-kick and the Royals then peppered the City penalty area with eight crosses and nine shots as Max O'Leary had to make at least one crucial late save.
Morrison apologised for his own goal, as he diverted a low Cam Pring cross intended for Alex Scott past Karl Hein just two minutes after the restart, but believed their performance at least warranted a point.
"We’ve very disappointed in the manner we conceded the goals – two minutes before half-time, and two minutes after,” he said.
"The second one in particular was avoidable and as a defender you want to clear your lines and clear that ball, and it’s the worst feeling ever when you score an own-goal. Especially when it’s such an important game and you’re trying to lead, galvanise and push the team. So I apologise for that for the team – we don’t want them mistakes.
"To be fair to the lads, I think the fans could see that we stuck with it and put in a much better performance in the second half and deserved something out of the game. Bristol City will know they’ve gone in very lucky – yes they defended their goals but on another day it could have gone in for us.
"It is disappointing that we didn’t get anything from the game. If we get a point, that’s something to build upon. Obviously we want all three, but I think the performance deserved at least a point. That could have been something to build on but it wasn’t the case."
In fairness to Morrison, after City had been the better side for the first 74 minutes, they every nearly collapsed in the closing period in all-too familiar fashion, as emphasised by expected goals.
Before Swift converted from 12 yards, Reading were at 0.7 for the game against City's 1.1. But by the 90th minute, plus five agonising minutes of injury time, the Royals had leapt to 2.02, emphasising the sheer volume of good chances they enjoyed at the end but also their poor execution.
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