A brute of a game brought a bruising result for Wolves.

But this was no KO blow – and if anyone tries to argue that the leaders are buckling at the knees today, that is worth remembering.

See also: Reading 1 Wolves 0 – in pictures

Mick McCarthy’s team are still standing top the Championship and while no win in five league matches is sure to have plenty preaching gloom, the long-term impact of this Madejski Stadium defeat is far from conclusive.

Wolves are not functioning with the same devastating force which has enabled them to withstand this results dip and yet still keep their noses in front.

But if they were not any better than Reading last night, they were certainly no worse.

And that is something that their manager knows he must press home while other are hitting the panic button.

They are not that far away from tipping the season back in their favour as long as they do not allow the club’s paranoia from 2002 And All That to overwhelm them.

As it was, a nightmare few seconds at the very start of this over-hyped collision of the division’s top two teams would bring about the result Wolves fans have been fearing for weeks.

Neill Collins is fated, it seems, to spend his career veering from the polar extremes of match-winning goals or defensive calamities – in this case, a second minute own goal headed beyond keeper Wayne Hennessey from a hopeful Chris Armstrong punt.

Reading could not believe their luck. Neither could Collins although he was not the only culpable figure in this footballing catastrophe.

His full-back Kevin Foley had opportunities to clear what was Reading’s first attack twice before conceding possession funnelled back to Armstrong.

And that lapse was aggravated by a rare moment of hesitancy from Hennessey, who came, stopped and was left in no man’s land by the trajectory of Collins’ header.

Maybe that was still on his mind when this ugly, scruffy, pushing, shoving, ferociously competitive showdown, packed with percentage passes but precious little quality, fought its way to a final standstill of such frustration for Wolves that the Scot was red-carded for dissent towards a suddenly officious assistant referee.

But the 90-odd minutes which separated Collins’ two moments of ill-fortune contained enough to give McCarthy and his players heart that they can yet turn this desperate disappointment into a positive turning point.

They regained their composure, stood up to Reading’s powerful, physical challenge and fought their way back into a contest which had tested every player’s ability to handle the tension which blanketed the Madejski’s pudding of a pitch ruined by continuous football and rugby.

Reading, with a back four further weakened by the loss of Michael Duberry in the first half because of a cut eye, were rightly pleased that they still had sufficient strength and organisation in defence to hold off Wolves strained efforts for a point. McCarthy’s men got themselves into enough – not many, but enough – encouraging positions to change that and their failure to deliver that moment of steel-lined quality will be the biggest concern to all.

Matt Jarvis was their most likely source of disturbance for Reading but that cutting end product eluded his game.

In a match of precious little goalmouth threat, Wolves produced the two best pure footballing moments only for their timing to desert them at the final split second leaving Andy Keogh, before the break, and his substitute Chris Iwelumo later, stranded offside.

But Reading were no better.

They tested Hennessey on two other occasions, both from set pieces, one requiring the keeper to tip over Noel Hunt’s well-driven free-kick, the other a full-stretch pounce on the same player’s header from Stephen Hunt’s uncanny delivery.

For the rest of the game, the two teams slammed away at each other with unrelenting fury but to precious little effect.

As Reading’s ever-astute manager Steve Coppell admitted, their similarities crushed from the game any hope of a spectacle.

“The two teams more or less cancelled each other out,” said Coppell.

“We are two very similar sides in make-up – we both want to get the ball out wide, we both play at a high tempo and we both want to go forward as much as we can. There was never going to be any space for football to be played.”

It must be remembered that this is a Wolves team staffed by plenty of players still unfamiliar with the demands an occasion such as this will make of them.

There will be plenty more further down the road as well and what they went through last night can only help sustain them.

Some already look full-on to the challenge.

Richard Stearman, who could be seen forcefully rallying his team mates after the shock of that own goal, was magnificent against Reading’s potent front pair, Stephen Ward not far behind on his return to the team.

And Wolves fans will have appreciated the debut of Nigel Quashie.

It was almost as if this midfield nomad had been recruited specifically for this one game and he approached it with a huge appetite for the “ugly stuff” McCarthy feels his team needs to handle better.

Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, too, showed that he is another who will not shrink away from the struggles ahead – and struggles they will be. Wolves are into the final third now where the greatest demands are made of nerve, muscle and skill; that his team responded so forcefully to its dreadful start and Reading’s robust energy will have been comforting McCarthy on the way home,

At the finish, the manager was leaving three forwards on the halfway line in his desperation for an equaliser but in a sequence of events which clearly angered him and triggered Collins’ temper-snap, Reading were able to fritter time away by the corner flag with some bizarre goings-on.

Leroy Lita’s on-pitch treatment for a dislocated shoulder which popped out and back in while the clock was ticking away was chief among them.

But then from that howler of an opening, it always seemed like this was never going to be Wolves night.

It can, however, still be their season.

By Martin Swain.