RECORDS MEAN nothing to Steve Coppell, the Reading manager. Likewise, other teams’ results or his club’s position at this point in the season feature low on his list of priorities. And when you have blown promotion as many times as Reading have in recent seasons, it is easy to see why.

A draw on Saturday against Leeds United stretched Reading’s unbeaten record to 18 matches in all competitions, a club record. They have not been beaten since losing their opening match, at home to Plymouth Argyle. Leeds were the first team to emerge from the Madejski Stadium with a point since.

“We’ve been in good positions right up to Boxing Day last year, when we beat Watford 3-0 and I thought, ‘We’ve got a hell of a chance.’ And then I broke another record — 11 games without a win,” Coppell said. “A couple of players get injured, a couple of silly suspensions, a couple of bad results and then you are looking down the wrong end of a microscope, not knowing where the next win is coming from.”

Reading do everything in a hurry. Attacks are swift, movement is constant and even the ballboys keep things moving along at throw-ins and corners. The old cliché, “you can’t score from row Z”, doesn’t apply here — by the time the ball has landed in the crowd, Reading will have taken the throw-in with another ball and will be charging in on the opposition penalty area. Everything moves together as one well-oiled machine, with Dave Kitson, their striker, at its heart.

Kitson went close several times on Saturday and was at the heart of most of Reading’s quick play, dropping back to link central midfield with the wingers — in particular Bobby Convey — then trying to get in at the business end, too.

It was his strike partner, Kevin Doyle, who proved most wasteful though, pulling a good chance wide and then blasting another straight at Neil Sullivan, the Leeds goalkeeper, from close range, before Brynjar Gunnarsson turned at the edge of the area to fire home a low shot that gave Reading a deserved lead.

The goal changed things, not necessarily in Reading’s favour. “All of a sudden we changed our game plan,” Gunnarsson said. “We got a bit excited.”

The introduction of David Healy was the catalyst for change and Leeds dominated the last 20 minutes. First Healy played in Ian Moore, who fired over, before Healy equalised, capitalising on a misplaced pass by Ivar Ingimarsson to fire a fierce shot into the bottom corner.

“Not many teams come here and come away with anything,” Kevin Blackwell, the Leeds manager, said. “We are still in our early days as a team together and it showed at times. We will get stronger in the second half of the season.”