Burton Albion boss Gary Bowyer has admitted that there was 'a suspicion' of offside for Jon Dadi Bodvarsson's goal against former club Reading in Tuesday's 3-2 defeat at the Pirelli Stadium.

The Brewers, sat in the relegation zone, raced into a two-goal lead in the first-half and missed chances early in the second half to put the match to bed.

Noel Hunt's Royals rallied and equalised with two goals in as many minutes from Michael Craig and Sam Smith.

However, Rumarn Burrell scored his second of the night deep into stoppage time to seal the victory.

Hunt was left fuming with his team's game-management and the levels of officiating, feeling his side warranted at least one penalty and Bodvarsson's goal to be ruled out.

The Icelandic forward only moved to Burton last week and has four goals in three matches, having spent two years in Berkshire between 2017 and 2019.

"I thought we were terrific going forwards in the first half," Bowyer told BBC Radio Derby upon making it three wins in three. "They’re a good team with some good footballers who play the possession game well. The way they played, against our system, was hurting us. When we went forward, we looked like we could score- quite a lot at times.

"We took a brilliant goal from Ru, a wonderful cross from Jack Armer. We get ourselves in front and then we have another chance, score from a well-worked set play which we identified, and it worked. There was a suspicion of offside, but we’ll take that. I thought we had other chances in the game.

(Image: ©Jason Dawson)

"As soon as it happened [JJ Mckiernan miss], I turned to Pat and said 2-2. I just knew, you’ve been in that position so many times as a manager and player. That was the minute you had to kill them off and we didn’t. Fair play to them, they got themselves back in it with two goals that we’ve looked back at quickly and needed to deal with better.

"Character, resilience and the mantra of ‘next goal’ doesn’t change and what a ball in from Dodgson and Ru was terrific again. To carry it out and see it through until the end and hear the reaction from the home supporters and JD, it was a brilliant night for us."

The Brewers are now three points adrift of safety while Reading dropped to 10th, still only three points outside the play-offs after three losses in a row.