Under pressure Reading boss felt his side could have won the big relegation battle at Peterborough United

The Royals boss refused to answer questions about his future after his side picked up their first Championship point for 44 days. Visiting fans stayed behind after the final whistle to protest at the manager and the club’s owners.

Paunovic did however speak on the game. He told BBC Berkshire Radio: “We could have got all three points. It wasn’t a pretty game. It was a difficult game to play with the weather conditions, especially for us as we want to get the ball down and play.

“We adapted very well though. The first half it was hard to exit with the ball from the backline, and get power on the ball. Once we did that, and put pressure on their backline, we had a couple of set-pieces that were dangerous.

“Second-half we had the advantage of the strong wind, but we looked to play the ball in behind and rushed it a bit.

“The conditions weren’t good. We had to choose between being safe or being sorry. But the team showed amazing physical output, and amazing patience and cohesion, working hard and winning second-balls.

“The result of that was the chance we had at the end of the game that could have brought us all three points. Lucas Joao did everything right but the execution.”

Reading are two points ahead of Posh having played a game more. They had lost their previous seven Championship matches.