What a peculiar game to end the calendar year. Entertaining, intriguing, passionate, all of these things. But peculiar too. Bizarre, in fact.

The draw means Hull City are a healthy eight games unbeaten and, although the tightness of the division means that such a fine run of point-attainment isn’t matched by high upward leaps in position, the prospects for 2011 are cautiously good. Many are making the comparison with 2007-8 now, as it was over the Christmas and New Year period – and specifically, to me, Caleb Folan’s equaliser at Stoke on New Years Day – that began the murmurings of who we might actually be able to reach the top six.

The peculiarities of the visit of Reading to the KC Stadium mean that we can’t rely on just actual football to achieve this goal once again. The intrusion of an attention-seeking official or two may have an effect. The official for this game made some baffling decisions, to say the least. I’m not going to say he was wrong – I’m always wary of that, as I hate appearing rose-coloured in my vision only to be proved incorrect afterwards – but he was certainly confusing in some of his interpretations of incidents and the laws. The City fans, bless them, were less forgiving and, in some cases, they really couldn’t be blamed.

Anyway, we’ll get to all that in a bit. Nigel Pearson made two changes from the side that won so heroically and belatedly at Sheffield United on Boxing Day, with Andy Dawson returning to the left back role after suspension and Paul McShane receiving a tardy call-up to the centre of defence after Anthony Gerrard pulled something – a hamstring, a thigh muscle, a member of the hospitality staff – in the warm-up. Read it aloud in a bombastic voice then – Mannone; Rosenior, McShane, Zayatte, Dawson; Ashbee, Harper, Koren, Devitt; Stewart, Simpson. Liam Cooper got a late issue of a substitute’s outfit alongside Jimmy Bullard, expected to play by dunderheaded people who think that 20 impressive minutes at Bramall Lane cancels out nearly two years of almost exclusive footballing inactivity.

Reading are a good side, quick, incisive, positive. They are also very cynical, not so much with timewasting habits but in terms of their chowing in the referee’s earholes throughout, something that Ian Ashbee realised early on and remedied by not leaving the officials alone, whether they deserved it or not, for the duration of the game. Ashbee, written off by so many learned Hull City supporters over the last three years or so, was completely brilliant. His fitness is bang on now, his shape is right, his attitude is immense, his tackling is radiant and his touch is still, at 34, improving with every season. And his leadership qualities hark us back to just how vital his barks and cajoles were through that tremendous second half of 2007-8 when he ended up leading us out, and up, at Wembley.

City forced an early corner which the snood-donning wastrel Jamie Devitt swerved in and Kamil Zayatte managed to poke round the corner of his marker into the side netting, with E1 celebrating a goal. Devitt then chested down a long Liam Rosenior pass and exchanged passes with the now-prolific Jay Simpson before trying a dipper that Adam Federici clung on to awkwardly.

There then followed a bright, sprightly sequence of passing that had even the most percentage-obsessed City fan purring with glee. Want to be entertained? It’s happening, it really is. Devitt, Rosenior, James Harper and even Dawson were involved as the ball flicked and sprayed itself right and left. Dawson eventually crossed low for Robert Koren to tee up a shot from distance that a stretching Federici managed to glove wide.

Reading got into the game courtesy of a soft corner that was half-cleared, then re-crossed into the danger zone from whence Jimmy Kebe drilled a vicious shot into the side netting. A mild let-off for the Tigers, before referee David Foster made the first of his somewhat idiosyncratic decisions by booking Kamil Zayatte for daring to make physical contact with a blue-and-white shirted human being while cleanly and clearly winning the football.

I hate it when old timers of the game whine about the art of tackling being lost, and how it was better in their day. Yes, and also lost are fat players who beat up their wives and ate steak and chips on matchdays before having extra cortisone on their pudding. But, well, when you see Zayatte accruing disciplinary points for the sort of tackles once taught as an art form by professional coaches, you wonder whether the game has any manliness left to it.

James Harper, facing the club for whom he made 350 appearances with distinction, suffered a similar fate shortly afterwards. The impish and quite brilliant Koren set off on a dazzling, darting run that allowed him room for a left-footer that cracked the inside of Federici’s post, with the Aussie keeper beaten. Harper slid in and – again, with cleanliness that would make that beehive hairdo woman with a PhD in Cillit Bang swell (even more) with pride – won the ball. The linesman flagged and Harper was booked. Madness, I tells ya.

Still, the ex Reading midfielder, whose contribution in recent times seems to have involved little more than using up midfield oxygen reserved for Ashbee if you ingest some meatheaded viewpoints, had something more positive to give. It perhaps came as a surprise to us all when he picked up a pass in the centre of the Reading half and proceeded to curl a tremendous shot around Federici and into the far corner. It was a splendid goal, really it was. The sharp-witted contributions of Rosenior, Koren and Ashbee were not to be sniffed at either, as each clipped the ball from one side of their controlling circle to the other to fool their markers and eventually give Harper room to look at goal.

Then enter Cameron Stewart, a player who has settled quickly and with the sort of instant effectiveness that brings forth another obvious comparison with another Manchester United loanee that was acquired in the 2007-8 season and ended up being instrumental in our eventual success. Stewart is different to Fraizer Campbell, in that he is quicker and more suited to taking on players with pace rather than drops of the shoulder that create the yard of space Campbell required to tear defenders to bits. Perhaps there is a doubt yet about Stewart’s finishing, but that will come with time, luck and a following wind, and his marvellous run at two Reading defenders that ended with a swerving and slightly deflected shot that saw City strike a post for the second time in the half was an indication of just how dangerous he will prove to be.

Devitt turned sweetly to put another effort a foot or two wide before the whistle sounded for the break, and all associated with Hull City trooped off to dressing room or khazi satisfied with everything, barring the officials. They, unresplendent in pink tops, were not greeted charitably as they approached the tunnel. Their afternoon was, however, only just beginning.

Let’s go straight into it – the first notable incident of the second half sealed Mr Foster’s new-found reputation as the scattiest referee on earth. However, here I cut him slack. Ultimately, all he did wrong was overrule his linesman, and a lot of the time pundits and observers are keen to remind refs and the rest of us that the assistants are just that, and if a referee disagrees with one of his team’s interpretations, he should consult, double check and then exercise his right to a casting vote if not convinced.

So, Jay Simpson chases a through ball around the edge of the box and Andy Griffin slides in to tackle. My immediate view was that the defender got the ball, and did so not inside the box. But the linesman was in a good position and chose to signal not just for a foul, but a penalty kick too. So as one, the Tiger Nation assumed we had a penalty.

What actually happened was that after a discussion between the officials, not to mention some heated persuasion tactics from Reading’s players, a drop-ball was given inside the box. It was not even contested, as Koren was obliged, it appeared, to tap it out for a goalkick. As the catcalls of derision and disbelief echoed round the Circle, the dissection of a bizarre sequence of events began.

Upon reflection, it seems the referee was unconvinced by his assistant’s point of view and was mindful to give no foul at all. Fair enough, his call. However, the decision to give a drop ball could only have come from a technical angle, supposing that at the precise point the linesman flagged and the referee felt compelled to consult, the ball was not quite out of play, even though it was certainly heading over the byline. Assuming the referee then would have assessed Simpson as being the final player to make contact with the ball, the decision would have been a goalkick had the linesman not erroneously interceded, and therefore the only way to restore that situation was to ask the City player involved in the drop ball to meekly put it over the line, allowing Reading to benefit from the decision the referee was immediately inclined to take.

Phew. All clear? Maybe? Correct? Maybe that too. It was all very complicated and confusing, but in the wider scheme of this referee’s performance, it was probably one of his better decisions, unless you happen to think we were denied a stonewall penalty. He didn’t even think it was a foul. It’s just a pity that so much pedantry and inconclusiveness is required to get from A to B when the game has been stopped. It doesn’t help. From the assessor in the crowd, however, it would have earned a big fat tick.

Less sure about whether a big fat tick was required after McShane conceded a penalty so soft it could have been erected for kids to jump up and down on after removing their shoes. The Irishman, playing like a man both obsessed and possessed, stuck a boot in Shane Long’s way and the Reading striker – a good player at this level, undoubtedly – went down like the proverbial sack of hardened lumpy vegetable products. It was a penalty gained professionally and opportunistically, but not really legitimately. Nonetheless, it didn’t matter to the Tigers in the end as Long sent a low kick for Vito Mannone’s right corner and the Italian stopper hopped across his goal to palm it away with aplomb and glee. It felt like justice, this one.

McShane then won a ball midway inside the Reading half while trailing back from a semi-cleared set-piece, and drilled a long, hopeful shot that Federici grasped after initially looking off his guard. City were still slenderly ahead, with their opponents getting some headway but being denied by stout defending and some superhuman Ashbee covering. The chances, however, were falling at both ends.

Rosenior made a fine run down his flank, using the silenced Stewart as a decoy before centring to the far post over the head of substitute Nick Barmby – on for Devitt – but reaching Koren, who sized up the opportunity, assessed the angles and curled his effort just over. Reading then won a free kick that was curled into the six yard area for Mannone to punch clear. Well, in theory. The loanee from Arsenal got his fist thoroughly to the ball but aimed it right at McShane, whose unwitting deflection landed at the feet of Long a yard or two out with the goal unmissable. He duly scored, unusually partaking in a subdued celebration that involved players and fans alike.

Pearson slung on Richard Garcia for Simpson and Bullard for Koren, and it was Bullard who nearly set up the winner the Tigers deserved. In five added minutes a corner was forced, and the City midfielder swung one beautifully on to the garishly unmarked Barmby’s head but somehow, some way, the ball was aimed over the bar when scoring seemed easier.

The final whistle sounded as Mannone collapsed to the turf clutching his leg, an injury that had occurred a couple of minutes before to the extent of getting Zayatte to take the goalkicks, and a rather muted and disconsolate Tiger Nation trooped away from the Circle for the last time in 2010. Let’s not be too despondent though; it’s eight unbeaten now, the team is still coming together and Reading are old hands at this level, not to mention a team that has rather a good record against us. The referee’s barking antics ultimately were not the reason City didn’t win; some carelessness in defence and a liking for the frame of the goal had much to do with it, and a point was still a decent return. There is much in 2011 to look forward to if things keep progressing at this rate. Given the absolute bilge on and off the pitch we’ve had to put up with in this calendar year, just the meagre prospect of some watchable fun and games, and a bit of ambition, should be enough to welcome the New Year with some reasonable hope and expectation. It’s all turning out okay, for now. Heads up.