Reading 2 Manchester United 3: Reading fright night for United

It would have been football's equivalent of coming back from the dead, and when Brynjar Gunnarsson's shot hit the bar in injury time, Reading's FA Cup life twitched for the last time. After they were three goals down to Manchester United in the first six minutes, Reading's second-half revival was astonishing - one more goal and the old competition would have broken new ground in provincial Berkshire.

In the space of 90 minutes, the Madejski Stadium went through a season's worth of emotions. First, their second-string Reading team were reduced to jelly as goals from Gabriel Heinze, Louis Saha and then Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made them look, for the first time this season, like a side hopelessly out of their depth. Then in the second half they staged an improbable revival that would have become one of the FA Cup's most unlikely storylines, had Gunnarsson's shot been a fraction lower.

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Sir Alex Ferguson will have to hope that his team show a lot stronger nerve as Chelsea pursue them down the home straight in the Premiership. In the mean time they have Middlesbrough at the Riverside in the sixth round of the FA Cup. The key question for Ferguson was: how did it come to this? This was not his team at full strength, instead a version of United Lite, with the A-listers like Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Paul Scholes on the bench if required.

But if this was a diluted version of United then Steve Coppell's team were positively watered-down, with eight changes from the side that lost to Middlesbrough in the Premiership at the weekend - and yet they almost came back.

Coppell's side scored their first goal through Dave Kitson on 23 minutes and there were six minutes left when Leroy Lita, on as a substitute, added the second.

Reading's revival was made all the more incredible by the chaos that engulfed them in the first six minutes. Coppell had kept good his promise to field a near identical line-up to the one he played at Old Trafford 10 days earlier. After six minutes had passed it hardly seemed to matter any more. With his team three goals down, the BBC cameras sought out Coppell in the stands sinking lower into his overcoat, a look of horror and embarrassment on his face.

When the Reading manager reached for the phone by his seat it was legitimate to wonder whether he was ringing the dug-out or the local taxi company for a cab out of town. United had taken every one of the three chances presented to them but Reading were woeful in every respect.

The first among the guilty was Adam Federici, the Australian goalkeeper who has pushed his credentials as a potential international over the last week and followed that up by handling Heinze's shot in the second minute like a nervous slip fielder. Wes Brown played in John O'Shea whose cut-back eluded Kieran Richardson but fell to Heinze. His drive slipped under the body of Federici for the first goal.

Two minutes later, Rio Ferdinand, captain for the night, struck a long ball from deep in his own half to Saha, who took the ball on his chest between Andre Bikey and Ulises de la Cruz. The ball ran off his chest quickly and seemed to have run on a few paces too many but Saha struck a savage shot across Federici and into the far corner. By this time, Reading were in pieces. They barely had to wait for the third, Richardson's long ball picking out Solskjaer who found himself in so much space it seemed inevitable he would be offside, but the Reading defence had conspired to play him on. The Norwegian took his chance beautifully with the outside of his right foot.

Only after 15 minutes did the home side take some kind of control and a goal was quick in coming. From John Oster's cross, Ivar Ingimarsson flicked the ball on and Kitson nodded home from close range.

As Glenn Little and Lita were brought on in the second half, so Reading became more dangerous, and when Lita headed in De la Cruz's cross, they seemed about to achieve the impossible. Gunnarsson's shot would have topped it all. Reading have managed great feats at the Madejski Stadium this season, but this comeback was just beyond them.

Reading (4-3-3): Federici; De la Cruz, Bikey, Ingimarsson, Shorey; Oster, Sidwell, Gunnarsson; Kitson, Seol (Little, 68), Doyle (Lita, 70). Substitutes not used: Hahnemann (gk), Hunt, Sodje.

Manchester United (4-4-2): Van der Sar; Brown, Silvestre, Ferdinand, Heinze; Richardson, O'Shea, Fletcher, Park; Saha (Rooney, 77), Solskjaer (Ronaldo, 90). Substitutes not used: Kuszczak (gk), Smith, Scholes.

Referee: H Webb (S Yorkshire).

FA Cup revised draw

Quarter-finals:

Middlesbrough v Manchester United

Blackburn or Arsenal v Manchester City

Chelsea v Tottenham

Plymouth v Watford

(Ties to be played 10-11 March)