“YOU can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need.”

The Rolling Stones’ lyrics for the first post-match song might have been appropriate to the home side, after going six games without a win.

MORE TOP STORIES:

But the 1,400-plus travelling fans will have found them even more poignant for their situation.

It was hardly an action-packed game for either goalkeeper, with few shots on target, but Burnley still had enough to emerge from an eighth game unbeaten with three points instead of the one they had to settle for in the end.

Andre Gray had good chances, but missed two from just six yards out.

The striker then won a second-half penalty, but Ali Al-Habsi made the save, denying him the chance to make it 19 for the season and – ultimately – the opportunity for Burnley to move into the top two ahead of Middlesbrough’s game at Leeds United tonight.

On an afternoon when Hull City won at Blackburn Rovers and Derby County slipped to sixth with a home defeat to MK Dons, it could be viewed as two points dropped.

But while there was disappointment in the dressing room, that was not the overall opinion.

Instead, they were more encouraged by the way they had handled a difficult game against robust, and at times unruly, opposition on one of the most uneven surfaces they have experienced this season – but most notably the way they handled and responded to unsavoury scenes before and after Gray’s missed spot kick.

A clutch of Reading players, led by the aggrieved Al-Habsi, got in the face of referee James Adcock, vehemently contesting his decision to point to the spot.

Al-Habsi had slid out with his legs first to stop Gray in his tracks. Gray went over them, and went down. It was hard to tell in real time and in the replays afterwards how much – if any – contact there had been. But the intent seemed there and it was enough to convince the match official, who opted against cautioning the keeper for the incident.

But Hal Robson-Kanu was booked for his actions after unsportingly knocking the ball away after it had been placed, then scuffing the penalty spot on an already rugby-ravaged surface.

When Gray went to replace the ball, he found himself in an armlock with Jake Cooper, who persisted in trying to put the striker off. Gray did well to keep his cool then, and when he found himself surrounded by vitriolic Royals once Al-Habsi had made the save to his left.

But the debate did not end there, as the former Bolton and Wigan stopper had encroached off his line before the ball had been struck.

Under the laws of the game a retake should be ordered, but Adcock allowed the save to stand.

It was a flashpoint and a talking point of a game that never really caught fire on a bitterly cold day in Berkshire, but not the only reason why Burnley did not get the win.

A miss by Gray inside the first five minutes practically set the tone for an afternoon of disappointment and frustration.

Scott Arfield slipped a great ball through to meet the run of George Boyd down the left channel, and the winger’s cutback found Gray, who had made space in between Paul McShane and Cooper for a clear shot, only to sidefoot over from six yards.

Two minutes later the aggressive nature of the clash was sparked, when Yann Kermorgant went down after a clash of heads with Joey Barton. The striker was then clattered in a similar incident with Stephen Ward, after Robson-Kanu had looked to provide a threat for the home side with his work down the right and delivery into the box, which led to Tom Heaton making a diving save to keep out Lucas Piazon’s downward header.

But it was a measure of a general lack of excitement in this game that Martin Paterson and Steven Thompson were given honourable mention by the travelling fans.

It is likely the duo’s goalscoring heroics of the play-off semi-final second leg at the Madejski Stadium, which fired Burnley to Wembley and ultimately the Premier League the first time in 2009, would have gone unrecognised. But such was the dearth of action on Saturday the chants were quite frequent.

They were two special goals, and as the game wore on it seemed that it would take something if equal quality to settle this contest.

Reading looked there for the taking if Burnley were able to avoid the unforced errors that had hindered them in the first half, and there were promising openings in the second.

Arfield hooked a 25-yard effort over, but it was Gray again who was presented with the best chances.

After struggling to get enough power behind a header from Boyd’s cross, Clarets right back Matt Lowton sent in one of several excellent deliveries, which Gray should have buried from close range but put wide.

David Jones’ inswinging free-kick was pushed against the woodwork by Al-Habsi and the follow-up turned behind.

The penalty award came soon after. And from there it was more about keeping their heads, and the point.

Burnley did not get all they wanted, or warranted. But come the end of the season, they just might find they got what they needed.