A brace from the in-form Yakou Meite helped to rescue a point for Reading against fellow strugglers Ipswich Town at Madejski Stadium.
After a frantic start which saw three goals inside the opening 11 minutes, Royals were left trailing for much of the game before Meite popped up with his sixth goal in five games to secure a point for Paul Clement’s Reading.
The draw lifts the Royals out of the relegation zone and up to 20th ahead of a two-week international break.
The visitors got off to the perfect start five minutes in when Gwion Edwards struck home from range after a long throw was not dealt with by the Royals defence.
Royals responded immediately, however, and levelled two minutes later through Meite, who acrobatically converted Sam Baldock’s delivery from the left, with his scissor kick from close range beating Bartosz Bialkowski in the Ipswich goal.
Parity did not last long though, as Ipswich forward Freddie Sears raced through on goal after a mix up at the back to slot home past Anssi Jaakkola and restore Town’s lead on eleven minutes.
Jaakkola did well to prevent Town from scoring a third, midway through the first half, as he reacted quickly to tip a diving header from Roberts around the post and out for a corner.
The visitors threatened again through Sears who fed Jonas Knudsen on the overlap, before the Dane whipped in a low cross that was only inches away from being tapped in by Edwards.
Chambers nearly added a third for Town, planting his free header narrowly wide from Flynn Downe’s corner.
At the other end, Baldock crossed into towards Meite, but the Ivorian’s headed effort was too close to the Town keeper to cause any problems.
As half time approached, the palms of Jaakkola were stung again by a well-struck effort from Roberts, who cut it from the right to take aim after being picked out by Cole Skuse on the right flank.
Clement opted for a change at the break, replacing Andy Rinomhota with Garath McCleary as Royals looked to find an equaliser.
Modou Barrow nearly provided the leveller after the restart, after the ball fell to him from a corner but Bialkowski reacted brilliantly to deny the Gambian from scoring at point-blank range.
The recently introduced McCleary then blasted a volley over from distance after another Royals corner was only half-cleared by the Town defence.
Town looked to kill the game off, and could have but for the strong hands of Jaakkola. Freddie Sears saw an attempt blocked out before Jordan Spence found a way past Tyler Blackett and shot at the Reading keeper from a tight angle. His effort was palmed away by Jaakkola to keep Royals in the game.
Blackett then made a perfectly timed sliding challenge to halt the run of Kayden Jackson, who would have been through on goal following Edwards’ ball down the middle.
Royals finally found their equaliser with six minutes to go when Bacuna picked out Meite with a well-weighted cross, and the Reading forward headed low, past Bialkowski to set up an exciting finish at the Madejski.
Reading could have won it when substitute John Swift cut the ball back to Baldock, but his first-time effort flew over the bar and the spoils were shared.
READING: Jaakkola; Yiadom, O’Shea (Swift 77), Moore (c), Blackett; Kelly (McNulty 83); Barrow, Rinomhota (McCleary 45), Bacuna, Baldock; Meite.
Subs not used: Walker, Gunter, Ilori, Aluko.
Goals: Meite x2 (7,84)
Yellow card: Barrow (13)
IPSWICH: Bialkowski; Spence, Chambers (c), Pennington, Knudsen; Skuse; Edwards, Chalobah, Downes, Sears (Rowe 82); Roberts (Jackson 60).
Subs not used: Gerken, Donacien, Lankester, Edun, Dozzell.
Goals: Edwards (5), Sears (11)
Yellow cards: Chambers (45+2), Spence (86)
Referee: Darren Bond
Attendance: 14,952 (inc. 1,887 away)
