Reading manager Veljko Paunovic has spoken of his relief that the uncertainty of a possible EFL points deduction has been lifted from the Sky Bet Championship club.

A six-point deduction was confirmed on Wednesday, with the Royals then going on to draw 1-1 with Nottingham Forest at the SCL Stadium.

In-form Forest were rewarded for an enterprising opening by going in front in the fourth minute through Watford loanee Philip Zinckernagel.

But Reading responded positively and were rewarded in the 64th minute when defender Scott Dann swept home from a low John Swift corner.

Following their deduction for breaching EFL financial rules, Reading had dropped from 16th to 19th in the table – four points off the relegation zone.

They are now 20th – two points from danger.

“We are relieved that the dark cloud of the rumours that were buzzing around (about the deduction) and which have been lingering all this time is finally settled,” Paunovic said.

“I’m not happy with the decision but we have to accept it and we have to deal with it. We will work hard to recover those points immediately.”

Paunovic was also pleased with the debut display of Andy Carroll, a 61st-minute substitute.

“He brought a pedigree on the field with him,” the Serbian said. “And his leadership, experience and communication with the guys around him.”

Paunovic added: “We made it tough for ourselves by conceding the early goal. And this was the second game in a row that we’ve done that. It’s avoidable and something that we will have to look at again.

“We must not put ourselves in situations where we have to react and have to deal with extra adversity at the beginning of the game.

“But we played some good football today and our style was our strength. Maybe we should have been much more clinical in the final third and more ruthless.”

Forest are now unbeaten in four matches and have lost only once in 10 games since Steve Cooper took over as head coach in September.

“We had a really good start to the game and I felt that we could have capitalised on that,” Cooper said.

“I thought we got in some really good positions but a little bit of our technique and decision-making – to create more opportunities – let us down.

“I’m not saying that we would have scored but we would certainly have got in positions to score and go 2-0 up.

“I thought Reading played well. They’ve got a lot of good players and play with a good tactical idea.

“We prepared well for that and it did sort of go that way. So we always knew that we had to manage both sides of the game.

“We talked about a few things at half-time, which in general we went on to do quite well.

“(Goalkeeper) Brice (Samba) had to make a couple of saves in the first half but maybe they were saves that he should make.

“We’re disappointed to concede off a set-piece but, to be fair to the boys, we’ve created two or three really good chances after that.

“We could have and probably should have scored from those.

“I just felt that we could have played with a little more control and we’ve come off a bit frustrated that we haven’t won.”