U21 Match Report | Reading 1-1 Cardiff City
Cardiff City's U21 side earned a point away from home against the Royals on Monday afternoon.
U21s Manager Darren Purse named one change from the side which started last time out against Charlton Athletic at home, with Cian Ashford making his first start in a number of months following injury.
In a tightly-fought match - similar to the two sides' three other fixtures so far this season - Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan took the lead unexpectedly for the hosts with 30 seconds of the first half remaining.
With City on the front foot for the majority of the second half, the young Bluebirds found a breakthrough late on thanks to substitute Jai Semenyo, who headed home at the far post from a free-kick.
With a vital point earned in the league campaign, City had battled back to secure a draw on the road from a tough challenge against the Royals.
FINAL SCORE: READING 1-1 CARDIFF CITY
Reading: Boyce-Clarke, Abdel Salam, Trialist, Carson, Holzman, Abbey, Akande, Camara, Scott, Senga, Ehibhatiomhan. Subs: Collins, Paul, Vickers, Abrefa, Okine-Peters.
Cardiff City: Deenis, Campbell, Bagan, MacNamara, Benjamin, King, Ashford, Antwi, Zimba, Pritchard, Jefferies. Subs: Thomas, Semenyo, Barton, Nyakuhwa, Peake.
Following the final whistle, Darren Purse shared his thoughts on the result against the Royals:
"We've had some really tight games between the two of us," he began. "Every game has ended with a goal either way or in today's case a draw, and these are the games that the boys learn from, where a moment can cost you or one goal makes the difference; that's where a lot of learning is done in these boys' learning journey.
"We were pushing them in the second half and had the conditions on our side, forcing errors from them. On another day we might have come away winning 2-1.
"With 20 minutes remaining we made the decision to bring Vontae off and get Jai Semenyo on. He gives us that energy in forward areas and obviously it worked out really well."
