Reading Under-21s boss Noel Hunt has admitted that Monday's abandonment against Nottingham Forest 'sits wrong.'

The Royals, already qualified for the PL2 play-offs, are hunting down a place in the Premier League International Cup for next season, needing a point to ensure their position amongst the elite.

This could have been wrapped up on Monday as the Royals led Nottingham Forest 2-0 approaching half-time in Alfreton before Reds star Ben Perry suffered injury and required an ambulance.

After over 30 minutes of waiting for a replacement, the match was called off and will be replayed in full on Monday, three days after Manchester City visit Berkshire this evening.

"We’re not quite there [Europe], we need to ensure it with a point with results going our way," Hunt told the media ahead of the visit of City. "That would have been the case on Monday if the game hadn’t been abandoned. We were 2-0 up and cruising, which put us fourth. It still sits wrong the way it was done and handled, it should never have been abandoned but what happened happened and we have to go and do it again."

Enjoying unprecedented success against a backdrop of off-field drama, the Royals are looking to pick up a local honour too after qualifying for the Berks and Bucks Senior Cup final against Marlow.

Losing to the Blues in the semi-final last year, Hunt's side are looking to emulate this year's Women's Under-21s side which won their Berks and Bucks honour last month.

With an incredibly youthful first-team, averaging an age under 22 in League One, some had questioned whether any of them could be called upon for the final with the first-team season finishing tomorrow.

Despite admitting it would be possible, the former Reading striker believes they have earned their down-time over the coming months.

"We could probably get two or three back at the end of the season- Jayden [Wareham] might come back for a couple of games, you don’t know," Hunt revealed. "If you wanted to really push to win it, you could probably have the likes of Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan and Kelvin Abrefa.

Tyler Bindon has played every game this season- and been a marvel. He came in and trained with us on day one and I’ll never forget it. I said if you don’t sign him, it’s a crime because he’s such a lovely kid and a great footballer who is still a baby and doesn’t realise how good he is.

"All these lads could, but we don’t want them to because they’ve earned their rest. We have to continue and see how far we can go ourselves."