It was the result which neither side wanted but in the end Manchester United and Reading had to settle for the draw and a replay at the Madejski Stadium a week on Tuesday.
United boss Sir Alex Ferguson and his Reading counterpart, Steve Coppell, made six and seven changes respectively to their sides.
BRYNJAR GUNNARSSON
From the way a scrappy first half developed, it looked as if either team would struggle to produce a goal of any description in this fifth round FA Cup tie at Old Trafford.
But deep into first-half stoppage time, Michael Carrick gave United the lead with a super low shot.
It looked as if that might prove to be the winner until United went to sleep midway through the second half enabling Brynjar Gunnarsson to capitalise on poor marking at a John Oster corner to head home the equaliser.
The first half had produced little in the way of chances, although what were created were mainly by United.
In the fifth minute, superb work by Louis Saha on the right corner of the Reading box set up Ji-Sung Park who blasted the ball over the bar from ten yards.
Only a fine intervention by Andre Bikey prevented Ole Gunnar Solskjaer from firing United ahead soon after.
Saha showed super skill just before the half-hour when his run from the centre circle took out three Reading players before the Frenchman shot over from 12 yards.
CARRICK AND FLETCHER
Park missed another good effort seconds later when he fired over from 12 yards after being set up by Wes Brown.
United should have taken the lead in the 34th minute. Park charged down a clearance from Bikey and the ball fell kindly to Solskjaer ten yards from goal and, although the Norwegian slotted his shot home, he turned around in astonishment to see the effort ruled out for offside.
Reading's best chance of the half came in the 40th minute when Ulises de la Cruz shot into the side-netting from eight yards after a fine one-two down the right with Oster.
But, with the first half moving into the second minute of stoppage time, United broke the deadlock.
Brown found Cristiano Ronaldo in the middle of the Reading half and his clever turn and flick set up Carrick to score with a superb low 25-yard right-foot shot which beat Reading goalkeeper, Adam Federici, before nestling in the bottom corner of the net.
United should have sealed the result in the 63rd minute. Park's clever chip into the Reading box found Ronaldo racing clear of Gunnarsson, but, with only Federici to beat, he slipped his shot wide of the goalkeeper and inches beyond the far post from eight yards.
Ronaldo went close with a 20-yard shot soon after, but United fell for the sucker-punch in the 67th minute.
Oster's deep corner to the back of the penalty area caught the United defence napping and Gunnarsson powered his way forward to score with a bullet header from 12 yards.
Ferguson brought on Paul Scholes, Henrik Larsson and Patrice Evra in an all-out bid to find a winner.
In a grandstand finale, Federici brilliantly tipped behind Larsson's close-range shot while Saha raced clear from just inside the Reading half before hitting his shot narrowly wide from the edge of the box.
But Reading almost grabbed a winner themselves late on when Ki-Hyeon Seol's low cross from the right evaded United goalkeeper, Tomasz Kuszczak, and Nicky Shorey got in a shot at the far post which had to be turned behind by Brown.
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson admitted his side had paid the price for wayward finishing as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Reading.
Ferguson said: "We had some fantastic chances, especially the one from Henrik Larsson, but we needed to take them.
"I was pleased with our performance but we missed some great chances and I'm sorry we didn't finish them off.
"We gave a good defensive display, apart from their goal which was a bad one to lose.
"I used a lot of my squad players and they all did well, but we are fortunate it was a cup tie and not a league game."
The Red Devils manager also hit out at the closeness of the FA Cup clash to Tuesday's Champions League match at Lille.
Ferguson continued: "We played at 5.15pm tonight and are expected to do well in Europe when Lille played last night and have an extra day to recover.
"It is unfair on teams who are committed to Europe."
Reading boss Steve Coppell said: "We played the same side in previous rounds. I brought in five internationals and I think it is a bit disrespectful to question these players' rankings in the structure of what we are trying to do in the club.
"Their goal was a kick in the teeth as things were petering out to half-time.
"It shows the quality of Ronaldo. We tried to get close to him all night and double up on him. We thought he was going to check back on his right side, but instead he laid the ball off.
"The pitch was a bit difficult all night, but that was the one pass which stayed close to the ground and in fairness Michael Carrick struck his shot very sweetly."
Turning to his own side's goal, Coppell said: "Gunnarrsson has been fantastic for us all season. He is a great threat in the air. It was a fantastic technique to get so high from that distance.
"We have had three games against United this season and we have given them a hard time on each occasion.
"There is no secret to it, but if you look at them, they have match winners all over the park.
"They have tempered their team a bit tonight but the bottom line is if you play United and they play well, you are going to get beaten.
"We tried to stop the flow of their tempo. We did well tonight but we will have to see what happens next time.
"This is great for us. The FA Cup has been a pleasant diversion for us all the way through but there is no doubt about the task we have before us."
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// Visual basic helper required to detect Flash Player ActiveX control version information
Function VBGetSwfVer(i)
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Dim swControl, swVersion
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End Function
Sub AT_FLASHO1060792_FSCommand(ByVal command, ByVal args)
call AT_FLASHO1060792_DoFSCommand(command, args)
end sub
Manchester United: Wes Brown, Ji-Sung Park (Paul Scholes 73), Tomasz Kuszczak, Gabriel Heinze (Patrice Evra 73), Cristiano Ronaldo, Darren Fletcher, Nemanja Vidic, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (Henrik Larsson 73), Michael Carrick, Louis Saha, Mikael Silvestre
Subs not used: Tom Heaton, John O'Shea
Booked: Nemanja Vidic 78
Reading: Adam Federici, Andre Bikey, Brynjar Gunnarsson, Steven Sidwell, Ki-Hyeon Seol (Glen Little 89), Bobby Convey (Stephen Hunt 71), Ulises De La Cruz, John Oster (Sam Sodje 86), Ivar Ingimarsson, David Kitson, Nicholas Shorey
Subs not used: Leroy Lita, Marcus Hahnemann
Booked: Andre Bikey 75, Ki-Hyeon Seol 61