Jake Livermore's last-gasp winner completed a stirring Hull City fightback as managerless Reading slumped to a 2-1 defeat at the KC Stadium on Wednesday.
The visitors dominated the opening period and led through an emphatic Nick Blackman strike before the forward was denied by the crossbar on the stroke of half-time.
But Hull were a totally different side after the break as Abel Hernandez restored parity and Livermore lashed home from close range in the last minute to pull Steve Bruce's men level on 41 points with Derby County, who are third in the Championship.
Reading, who remain 13th in the table after the loss, had started in a positive fashion and Allan McGregor was forced to tip Blackman's effort wide, but he could not keep out the same player's effort from an almost identical position just prior to the half-hour mark.
Consecutive backheels from Matej Vydra and Oliver Norwood quickly switched the ball from one flank to the other and Blackman was waiting unmarked to blast past McGregor.
Jonathan Bond saved well with his legs as Curtis Davies tried to prod home from the edge of the six-yard box on a rare Hull attack before a Blackman set-piece hit the top of the crossbar at the end of the first half.
Perhaps fired up by a few choice words from Bruce, Hull levelled on 62 minutes when Hernandez tucked away the rebound after Ahmed Elmohamady's initial effort was kept out by Bond.
Chuba Akpom fired agonisingly wide after cleverly making space for the shot as Hull cranked up the pressure in search of a victory.
And Livermore capped off a much-improved second-half display when the ball fell kindly for him following some penalty box pinball and he rifled into the net.
