Reading 1 Middlesbrough 1: Tuncay off mark to salvage priceless point for Southgate

Middlesbrough's dismal run stretched to 10 matches without a win and, after a week in which two more Premier League clubs unveiled new managers, Gareth Southgate can hardly be feeling at his most secure. Yet his team did not fail him for effort here, and after the Turkish international Tuncay Sanli's first goal for the club deservedly rescued a point it must have felt almost like a victory.

"There was energy and character and we needed those qualities to come here. I hope that shows that the players are on my side," Southgate said. "Hopefully, coming from behind to get a point will give the players a bit more confidence."

None the less, the substitute Tuncay's goal seven minutes from the end could not keep Boro out of the bottom three, because Sunderland won at Derby. When Arsenal are next on your fixture list it is not the place to be.

By then matters may have come to a head in his relationship with Jonathan Woodgate, who was substituted yesterday with a clear indication that it was the England international whom he blamed for the Dave Kitson goal that had givenReading a 54th-minute lead.

"I was not happy about the goal we conceded, which was much the same as the third we let in against Villa last week," Southgate said. "Woodgate was not injured."

Tuncay's sharpness may be timely now that Mido has been ordered to rest his groin injury. Boro desperately need a capable striker, one more effective than Dong-Gook Lee, the South Korean international whose 10 months on Teesside have not yielded a Premier League goal.

At least Boro looked creative here, using the width of the field well, either through Stewart Downing on the right, initially,before switching to his preferred left flank or Adam Johnson, back from his successful loan spell at Watford, who had their best chance in the first half when Marcus Hahnemann was a shade fortunate as the ball squeezed through his grasp, to be rescued by a post.

Reading had gone close when Ross Turnbull, making his first start for 15 months in the Middlesbrough goal after Mark Schwarzer broke a thumb in training, kept out a powerful strike by Kitson, and went ahead nine minutes into the second half. Kevin Doyle outjumped David Wheater to flick on Hahnemann's long clearance, Kitson picked up the loose ball and though it was with a deftly executed lob that the Reading strikerscored his fifth goal of the season, Turnbull's decision to race off his line did tend to invite it.

The goal was hard on the visiting side, and certainly Reading did not look secure in their lead. So when Tuncay, a 70th-minute replacement for Lee, headed the equaliser seven minutes from the end, it was nomore than Southgate's players deserved for not allowing their heads to drop, even though Reading's manager, Steve Coppell, had reason to complain about poor marking as the Turkish striker thundered in to meet Luke Young's cross and head home his first goal for the club.

Reading remain 12th, although Coppell, ever the realist, is feeling only marginally more comfortable than Southgate. "It was a good cross for Middlesbrough's goal, but when you go in front at home you hope the defensive aspect of your game will be enough to keep you ahead and we should have defended it better," he said. "The League table flatters us at the moment. In reality we are close to being right in the thick of it."