It was a performance that divided opinion on the terraces and even manager Alex Revell had his grumbles, but a point against an impressive Reading, and more importantly a far higher standard of football, is something Stevenage should certainly be content with going forward.

Dan Kemp had put them ahead in a lung-busting first half where the high press had the visiting Royals in all sorts of bother.

A tactical change at the interval, and inevitable tiredness from Boro, saw Reading pass the ball quicker and more accurately, but they only made it 1-1 with seven minutes of the 90 remaining, Harvey Knibbs scoring after a messy build-up.

And with injured players like Carl Piergianni, Nathan Thompson and Dan Phillips making quicker than expected returns from injury, hope is just bubbling that this performance could be the start of a better sequence of results.

"Yeah, and we're still doing that with people missing," said Revell.

"I don’t think we can question their energy and their togetherness and their work rate. 

"That's always there but it’s also having that that confidence to believe in how you press and how you win it back and not to sink. 

"Unfortunately, second half, we didn't quite have that same energy and we saw [that the likes of] Nick Freeman hasn't played enough for him and in terms of the relentlessness of these games. 

"It’s very difficult to put on games for them to get that fitness and I think you probably saw that after half-time with that little drop off. 

"There is definitely something to look back on in the second half though to make sure we get a complete performance rather than just 45.

"But that was more us. They’re in a very good vein of form and we knew it was going to be a challenge. We we're so close to winning and the first-half performance deserved it.

"Second half, a draw was probably a fair result if we're brutally honest but loads of encouragement for the way that we performed, especially in the first half." 

The Boro boss also explained in a bit more details what he meant by the drop-off in the second half.

He said: "When you press like we did, as intense as we did, you are going to have a drop off and we did drop off in the second half a little bit. 

"And when you do drop off, you allow good players time and space and they can hurt you. 

"We knew we'd probably have that dip and we just tried to tinker it a little bit to try and give ourselves a little bit of a breather. 

"That then has a knock-on effect of them maybe having extra players, a spare so they can build. 

"And drop off is also because of where we're winning it back.  

"When you win it back on the edge of your own 18-yard box, it's a lot further to go to score a goal whereas first half when we won it, we were two passes away. 

"There [was a lot of] turnovers in the first half and we were higher up the pitch which [forces] them to work a lot harder and play a lot more longer balls. 

"Because we dropped off in the second half, rather than getting out to the ball we kind of sunk, and when you sink, you allow teams to keep coming. 

"That comes from many things. That comes from looking after the ball as a front pair [for example], you have to look after the ball and you have to retain it and when you don't, it does come back. 

"So, there are a lot of things to work on but with the lads coming back and putting themselves on the line, we're happy with the point but obviously there is a bit of disappointment.  

"We were winning the game and I think we had a couple of half chances, when Listy goes through and it's just that final pass to Jamie Reid or when he goes himself and we want him to drive but he slides it down and it’s just those moments, that's what I mean about the drop off. 

"It's that tiredness and decision making but yeah, it was a good solid point to build on."