Reading blew the chance to move level with Championship leaders Southampton on Tuesday when they were held to a 1-1 draw at lowly Doncaster.
Doncaster took the lead just before the half-hour mark at Keepmoat Stadium when Kyle Bennett found himself on the end of an El-Hadji Diouf cross before firing past Adam Federici in the Reading goal.
But Reading hit back six minutes after the interval when defender Alex Pearce rose to meet an Ian Harte cross and headed into the top left hand corner of Carl Ikeme’s net.
Despite their best efforts, Reading could not find the goal they needed to move level with Southampton on 69 points as their eight-match winning streak came to an end.
The result did, however, move Reading one-point clear of West Ham in third place, although Sam Allardyce’s side have a game in hand.
Elsewhere on Tuesday, Hull City posted a 3-0 away win over Cardiff to leapfrog the Welsh side into the play-off places on goal difference.
A Kevin McNaughton own goal gave Hull the lead in the sixth minute, and second-half strikes from James Chester and Aaron McLean wrapped up a comfortable win to move Hull into sixth spot.
Birmingham missed the chance to move into the play-off places when they suffered a 3-1 loss at Leicester.
Chris Hughton’s side took the lead at The King Power Stadium through a 20th-minute penalty from Wade Elliott, but Jermaine Beckford levelled for the hosts on 34 minutes.
Jeffrey Schlupp put Leicester ahead 10 minutes from the end, and when Beckford scored his second in stoppage time Nigel Pearson’s side had secured the three points.
And Derby kept their push for the play-offs alive with a 1-0 victory over Nottingham Forest at Pride Park.
They left it late, however, with Jake Buxton finally netting the winner in the fourth minute of stoppage time.
