A brute of a game brought a bruising result for Wolves. But this was no KO blow –  and if anyone tries to argue that the leaders are buckling at the knees today, that is worth remembering.

Mick McCarthy’s team is still standing atop the Championship and while no win in five league matches is sure to have plenty preaching gloom, the long-term impact of this Madejski Stadium defeat is far from conclusive.

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Wolves are not functioning with the same devastating force which has enabled them to withstand this results dip and yet still keep their noses in front.

But if they were not any better than Reading last night, they were certainly no worse. 

And that is something that their manager knows he must press home while other are pressing the panic button.

They are not that far away from tipping the season back in their favour as long as they do not allow the club’s paranoia from 2002 And All That to overwhelm them.

As it was, a nightmare few seconds at the very start of this over-hyped collision of the division’s top two teams brought about the result Wolves fans have been fearing for weeks.

Neill Collins is fated, it seems, to spend his career veering from the polar extremes of match-winning goals or defensive calamities – in this case, a second minute own goal headed beyond keeper Wayne Hennessey from a hopeful Chris Armstrong punt.

Reading could not believe their luck. Neither could Collins although he was not the only culpable figure in this footballing catastrophe. 

His full back Kevin Foley had opportunities to clear what was Reading’s first attack twice before conceding possession funneled back to Armstrong. 

And that lapse was aggravated by a rare moment of hesitancy from Hennessey, who came, stopped and was left in no man’s land by the trajectory of Collins’s header.

Maybe that was still on his mind when this ugly, scruffy, pushing, shoving, ferociously competitive showdown, packed with percentage passes but precious little quality, fought its way to a final standstill of such frustration for Wolves that the Scot was red-carded for dissent towards a suddenly officious assistant referee.

But the 90-odd minutes which separated Collins’s two moments of ill-fortune contained enough to give McCarthy and his players heart that they can yet turn this desperate disappointment into a positive turning point.

They regained their composure, stood up to Reading’s powerful, physical challenge and fought their way back into a contest which had tested every player’s ability to handle the  tension which blanketed the Madejski’s pudding of a pitch ruined by continuous football and rugby.

Reading, with a back four further weakened by the loss of Michael Duberry in the first half because of a cut eye, were rightly pleased that they still had sufficient strength and organisation in defence to hold off Wolves.

Wolves got themselves into enough – not many, but enough – encouraging positions to change that and their failure to deliver that moment of steel-lined quality will be the biggest concern to all.

By Martin Swain