MIDDLESBROUGH maintained the pressure on both Derby and Bristol City in the race for the Championship play-offs with a 2-1 win over Reading at the Riverside Stadium.

It was a rather strange game, with Boro looking very good and very shaky at different stages. First-half goals from the returning Lewis Wing, the best player on the pitch throughout, and Britt Assombalonga from the penalty spot turned the game around after a wonder strike from Reading’s Danny Loader.

Tony Pulis says all his team can do is their own job after Derby beat Bristol City to go sixth ahead of their game in hand this week.

“We can’t do anything about Derby,” said Pulis.

“They’ve got three points against Bristol, now they play Swansea, what we’ve done is kept the pressure on.

“If we hadn’t have won today that would have been it. We’ve won so there’s pressure on them going into the next two games. Football is a funny old game.”

Boro could have taken the lead early on, but failed to convert two great chances. First, Assombalonga headed Ashley Fletcher’s cross wide before Wing struck the post.

Out of nothing, though, Reading went ahead. Loader turned excellently before unleashing a curling effort which found the top corner, giving Darren Randolph no chance.

George Saville tested Emiliano Martinez at the other end and Assombalonga smacked the woodwork after making space for himself in the box. Defensive lapses had given the Royals control, but Pulis’s men were beginning to step up. 

Wing was the man looking to create something for the home side and moments after going close with an audacious lob, he equalised. Reading failed to clear Jonny Howson’s cross, which fell to the midfielder, who swept home from close range.

Six minutes before the break, Boro scored again through Assombalonga’s spot-kick, but the striker had put the ball in the net after the referee blew for the foul on Saville.

It really felt as though Boro needed a third as quickly as possible, and they went in search of it straight from the restart. Assombalonga was unlucky to be denied by a superb Martinez save after deflecting Muhamed Besic’s shot goalwards.

The visitors began to find their feet again and a similar pattern to the first half emerged. Boro continuously lost the ball in midfield and Reading swarmed forward on the counter attack, though they weren’t testing Randolph a great deal.

As the game wore on, Boro’s lack of intensity brought a nervous energy over the 22,003-strong crowd. Reading continued to build and, though they were kept at arm’s length for much of the second half, it felt as though a clinching goal would release the pressure valve.

A collective breath was held when Andy Yiadom broke down the left and crossed for substitute Callum Harriott, but Randolph was equal to his backheeled effort, as he helped Boro over the line.

Despite defeat, Reading boss Jose Gomes says everyone at the club deserves credit for avoiding relegation.

“I said from the beginning I really believed we would achieve this target [survival],” he said. 

“I didn’t know exactly when, but the way the players worked and the way they accepted ideas, I knew it was a question of time.

“We deserved it. When I say we, I mean the club. It’s a club achievement and the result of the work of a lot of people.”