Brighton & Hove Albion have secured a 1-1 draw against Reading in their Championship match, despite playing the majority of the second half with 10 men.
Royston Drenthe was lively in the opening stages, forcing Tomasz Kuszczak to push away his cross. The Brighton goalkeeper then denied Adam Le Fondre.
The Royals continued to have the better of the play at the Amex Stadium, chasing the ball down at every opportunity.
However, the Seagulls then stunned their opponents with the first goal of the afternoon. A miscommunication between Alex McCarthy and Chris Gunter resulted in the defender heading the ball into his own net.
Hope Akpan fired over from the edge of the box after being set up by Jordan Obita as Reading pushed for an immediate response.
A late breakaway then saw Jesse Lingard find Stephen Ward, who then played it to Jake Forster-Caskey. However, the midfielder's effort was too high.
The home side suffered a setback at the start of the second half when captain Gordon Greer was sent off for a second yellow card for bringing down Le Fondre.
The Royals striker then headed over and Nick Blackman curled a shot over the bar, but Drenthe soon drilled the ball in with just over an hour played to bring his side level.
Will Buckley shot wide after getting the better of Michael Hector on the edge of the box, and Jose Ulloa had an effort disallowed for offside.
However, the Seagulls needed Kuszczak to be at his best to keep out Jobi McAnuff after the Reading man had stolen the ball off Bruno to go clean through.
Gary Peters
