With a third-minute yellow already under his belt, and referee Michael Oliver showing all the signs of being a 'homer', Coke was beaten in the 26th minute by Fabian Delph in the centre circle – not exactly a place of maximum threat – he then pursued him and hauled him down.

Red card.

Coke had an incredulous 'How can it be?' look. Daft as a brush!

I assume Stuart Gray has had words, but if a player of Coke's ability can't get his brain in order he'll be a liability instead of the asset we all know he can be.

Skipper Chris Doig had already collapsed with a hamstring injury after 12 minutes so we reorganised the backline, but when Coke was sent off I expected us to be ripped apart. Instead we got a marvellous response from the players and the warmth of feeling between them and the travelling fans at the end when we'd earned a battling 1-1 was lovely to behold.

It was a wonderful team performance, we needed luck when two separate shots thudded our woodwork, but you can also argue that their penalty after 37 minutes was highly dubious.

I've watched TV replays and I think the referee was wrong – he also turned down a better chance later that was in our favour.

There's every chance that if Coke had kept his head we'd have come home with a famous victory.

We took the lead after nine minutes when Ryan Gilligan's clever move up the left put Leon Constantine in with a chance with which he only half-connected, but it was immediately pounced on by Scott McGleish for a super goal which he took at the near post just before the goalkeeper's arms could collect it.

Why Gray left Constantine on and subbed McGleish off after 53 minutes was a puzzle.

At that point we certainly needed to see new boy Nicholas Bignall, but it was the wrong man who went off.

I appreciate Gray's wish to protect Constantine from elements of support who are unfair to him, and to give him a proper chance, however you can't run a side on sentiment.

I want to see Constantine succeed too, I bear him not an ounce of malice but I'd be lying if I didn't tell you he was an obvious weakness at Leeds.

He rarely controlled the ball properly, his distribution was poor, he couldn't win headers, and in losing the ball he frequently put his team-mates under extra pressure.

There, I've said it, and if you read this, Leon, I do want you to be the great player you can be for us.

It wasn't an ideal time for young Bignall to make his debut, he'd no doubt been dreaming of getting on the end of some attacking moves and showing his class by stuffing the ball into goal at the legendary Elland Road, but all of a sudden he was isolated while his team-mates fought a desperate rearguard action.

I doubt you get that in Reading reserves, so it'll be a learning experience he didn't expect.