EFL Cup match report: Reading need penalties to see off MK Dons

Reading scraped into the third round of the EFL Cup with a 4-2 win on penalties, after a 2-2 draw with MK Dons.

Jordan Obita struck the winning spot-kick for Reading after MK had missed two of their four.

Dean Bowditch gave MK a first-half lead when he calmly fired home from the penalty spot.

Reading levelled 21 minutes from the end when Callum Harriott unleashed a piledriver from long range.

Harriott struck again six minutes from the end of extra time only for Kabongo Tshimanga to force the penalty shoot-out.

Reading manager Jaap Stam fielded a mix-and-match selection, with four players making their full debuts.

MK counterpart Karl Robinson included six academy players and four teenagers in his line-up.

Reading forced the pace immediately, with the lively Harriott often cutting in from the right flank.

Reading continued to threaten, with MK mostly on the back foot, but Liam Kelly drove wide from a promising position.

MK finally stirred when 17-year-old Oran Jackson tried his luck from 25 yards, with home goalkeeper Anssi Jaakkola having to move smartly to tip it over.

And their growing efforts were rewarded in the 34th minute when they went ahead after a poor backpass from Jake Cooper.

Jaakkola brought down Tshimanga as he ran into the Reading area and Bowditch tucked away the resultant penalty with ease.

Joseph Mendes went close with a header, well saved by Lee Nicholls, but the game was then held up for almost five minutes after Reading team-mates Kelly and Cooper clashed heads. Kelly eventually departed on a stretcher.

Reading continued to dominate but the MK resistance broke in the 69th minute.

Harriott gathered a loose ball 20 yards out and sent a superb left-footed shot curling past Nicholls for his first goal for the club.

MK were almost breached again soon after when Nicholls lost out in an aerial tussle with Mendes, but the loose ball was hacked to safety.

Harriott, Roy Beerens, George Evans and Mendes all had chances to settle the tie in normal time but were wasteful in the extreme.

Ben Reeves hit a post and Giorgio Rasulo the crossbar in quick succession as MK controlled the first period of extra time.

Reading appeared to be wilting in the oppressive heat, with four players limping and all three substitutes used, but they struck what appeared to be the winner in the 114th minute.

Harriott found space to glide another firm shot past Nicholls only for Tshimanga to slide in the equaliser two minutes from the end.