Reading manager Mark Bowen is convinced his side can climb the Championship table following their excellent 2-2 draw with QPR at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium on Tuesday night.

Nahki Wells gave the hosts the lead before George Puscas equalised two minutes later after a sensational pass from Ovie Ejaria.

Jordan Hugill put QPR in front again but Sam Baldock levelled matters on 74 minutes after good work from John Swift and Andy Yiadom.

In truth, the Royals more than matched their opponents, who sit fourth in the league, and Bowen is adamant his troops can make some noise this term.

He said: "We will be better than OK.

"Myself and team and my staff all have ambitions not just to be OK and we will push up this league, I am telling you because we are too good not to be.

"If we get things right with our off the ball stuff, that's what we need to work on. Our ability is not in question. We can climb this league, I have no doubt about that."

Overall, Bowen was delighted with the manner of his side's display and wants his team to go to Nottingham Forest on Saturday with a spring in their step.

He added: "To come back into the game showed tremendous resilience and we took the game to them.

"At the end, I felt we were the team in the ascendency. Full credit to us, their manager changed their shape at half-time because we caused them so many problems in the first half.

"They did have a spell where they dominated for 15 minutes and I made a change to bring off Rinomhota and put John Swift in there and sacrificed a tiny bit of defensive resilience to try and control the game more.

"Garath McCleary came on and he took on the information in the role that he played. A pleasing thing is both strikers scored and a special mention to Sam Baldock.

"He has been an example to everyone and the work-rate he showed was first class.

"Forest will be another tough game for us but we can take enormous confidence from the last two games.

"I was a little bit critical in terms of the goals we gave away and we will recover will now and we will be ready and look forward to the Forest clash."