PAUL Clement hailed the ‘mental toughness’ of his Reading FC players after their impressive comeback against Besiktas.

Royals fought back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with the Turkish top-flight side in the Austrian city of Graz last night.

Sam Smith pulled one back for Reading with five minutes to go then Marc McNulty notched his first goal for the club with a last-gasp equaliser.

Royals’ pre-season campaign got off to a poor start with defeats to AFC Wimbledon and non-league Eastleigh.

But Clement’s men have shown steady improvement in the past few days after a 0-0 stalemate with Fulham on Saturday and last night’s draw in Austria.

“There were lots of positives from Tuesday night and we’re moving in the right direction, 100 per cent,” declared Clement.

“We made some changes and got some fresh legs on at the end.

“It’s a great sign of mental toughness that, at 2-0 down against brilliant opposition, you keep going and you’ve still got belief to get back in it.

“Sam Smith has scored a couple of goals in pre-season which is good for him, and Marc McNulty scored his first for the club, albeit in a friendly game, which is also good.”

Former Liverpool man Ryan Babel and Oguzhan Ozyakup struck early in the second half to give Besiktas a 2-0 lead.

Smith, who is being linked with a loan move to Oxford United, pulled one back in the 80th minute before McNulty’s levelled right at the death.

Clement was clearly encouraged by the display, stating: “I’m really pleased with the defensive effort and shape of the team.

“We will win games in the Championship playing like that, no question.

“We came up against a really good outfit who play technical football and we were under a lot of pressure at times.

“But we defended resiliently and were disappointed to go a goal behind. Then, having gone two behind, the players could have just folded.

“The players were tired but they grabbed the opportunity and went for it. We deserved to get it to 2-1, we pushed to the very end and we snatched a last-gasp equaliser.”

Royals face Rubin Kazan in Ilz this Friday (4pm ko) before returning from their Austrian tour the following day.

Clement’s men then host Crystal Palace on Saturday, July 28 (3pm ko) in their last pre-season friendly before launching their Championship campaign against Derby County on Friday, August 3 (8pm ko).

Clement added: “I’ve got no doubt that we’re going to be ready for the start of the season.

“We’ve still got another two-and-a-half weeks, we’ve got another really good game on Friday against Rubin Kazan.

“Then we’ve got lots more training sessions and a final game against Crystal Palace next week, and we’ll be good to go.”