Eight men given Royal pardon
YEOVIL boss Gary Johnson had no complaints after the Glovers were reduced to eight men against Reading but still held on for a draw.
Town took a first-half lead through Shane Duffy’s header but had Byron Webster, Joe Ralls and Kieffer Moore sent off after the break.
Reading equalised through a Tom Lawrence own goal just after Webster’s 66th-minute red card but were unable to force a winner despite their numerical advantage.
And Johnson had no problem with referee Scott Mathieson, despite him sending off three Yeovil players.
“I’ve got no complaints over the red cards,” he said. “They weren’t vicious, it was a misjudgment from Byron from the first and then two young lads who were overzealous.
“If you miss the ball and catch the man like they did then there’s a chance you'll get a red card.
“It's the start of their (Ralls and Moore) careers and they will learn a lesson from it. Fortunately we still got a point.
“When you've got eight men and you’re up against a side like Reading to have to defend manfully and we did that.
“I was proud of their commit- ment and the way they defended at the end of the game. It was nervy of course, but we managed to hold on.”
Royals boss Nigel Adkins was left frustrated as his side dropped out of the play-off positions after failing to find a winner.
He said:“We were in control of the second half and when they had the players sent off we had every opportunity to go on to win.
“We did a lot right, we got the ball wide and had a lot of possession in the attacking third of the pitch.
“We created a lot of opportunities but Yeovil deserve great credit because they defended very well.”
Yeovil went ahead in the first half when defender Duffy out jumped Reading keeper Alex McCarthy to head into an empty net.
Yeovil’s first red card arrived on 66 minutes when Webster dragged Royston Drenthe to the floor inside the area to concede a penalty.
Mathieson awarded the spotkick and gave Webster his marching orders to reduce the Glovers to ten men.
Adam Le Fondre took the penalty, which was brilliantly saved by Stech, although Reading equalised just seconds later.
A quick corner found Le Fondre in the box and his shot was deflected into the net by Yeovil midfielder Tom Lawrence.
And the Glovers were quickly down to nine men when Ralls lost his head and lunged into a late challenge on McCleary.
Goalkeeper Marek Stech excelled himself with two world class saves as Town tried to repel wave after wave of Reading attack from Danny Guthrie and Pavel Pogrebnyak.
But with a minute left and just two minutes after being shown a yellow card for kicking the ball away, Moore tripped Chris Gunter to earn a second booking and was sent off, reducingYeovil to eight men.
The Glovers then deployed all seven outfield players as defenders in a desperate bid to shut out the Royals. They had to negotiate seven minutes of stoppage time but ultimately held on for a point.