Reading 5 - 4 West Ham

Last updated : 06 August 2002 By Peter Robinson
West Ham started with a full strength side ( still no PDC ) of James, Schemmel, Repka, Dailly, Winterburn, Garcia, Cole, Carrick, Sinclair, Defoe and Kanoute. After weathering a bit of an early storm, in which DJ made and outstanding stop, diving to push a goal bound header out for a corner, we eventually got going. Freddie missed narrowly with a diving header after Garcia had chased a deep ball into the box by Cole, he hooked it across goal and Freddie headed just wide.

Minutes later, Cole put Freddie through one on one, but his finishing was awful and he shot wide. It didn't take long for the first goal to come, a good combination involving Cole and Defoe ended with Kanoute shooting a left foot shot into the net. The second followed about 3 minutes later, Defoe found space on the edge of the box and ran at the defence and let fly with a shot that bounced under the keeper. 2-0 and in the driving seat.

At this stage we were knocking the ball around comfortably and didn't look in any trouble. Repka and one of their forwards went up for a header, both holding each others shirts and arms all over the place - the ref deemed Tomas to have committed a foul ( don't know how he worked that out ), but Reading got a free kick on the edge of our box. Repka angrily headed toward the ref and stood head to head with him in a stupid display of dissent and petulance - if it hadn't been a friendly, I would not have been surprised to see him red carded. Roeder needs to have a word.

Anyway, the freekick was duly dispatched. 1-2. We still looked comfortable, but minutes later a scramble following a corner in which it looked like Repka was clearly fouled, Reading equalised. Repka stayed down for a long time - how often does that happen?

Reading took the lead from another corner, DJ came to punch, didn't connect properly, the ball dropped to a Reading player who scored. Readings goal of the night came shortly afterwards - the winger slipped by Schemmel ( still feeling the effects of a crunching tackle minutes earlier ) and crossed low into the box, Cureton beat Dailly to the cross and lashed it past James 4-2.

The halftime whistle went, and as I expected, Repka didn't appear for the second half, Pearce replaced him. Sincs was replaced by Moncur and Cole went wide left. Reading then went 5-2 up after an extremely dubious penalty award against Winterburn who allegedly pulled a forward back - the linesman was the only one who saw the offence I think - yet he had failed to spot a more obvious hand ball for us in the first half. Winterburn left the pitch to be replaced by Minto after what looked like a nasty wrist injury - lets hope it isn't too serious.

Joe was my man of the match, continually probing, dribbling, accurate passing and he seems to have found that killer 'Berkovic' ball as he put a few players in during the night. He scored our goal of the night - Garcia and Defoe worked it down the right and it ended with Joe beating a few defenders and the goalie to slot home. 5-3.

This led to all out substitutions for WHU with Defoe, Kanoute, Cole, Dailly, Schemmel, Carrick , Garcia by Sofaine, Camara, Courtois, McCann, Breen, Labant and a young black right back who the announcer said was Grant McCann, but I think it was either Glen Johnson or Anton Ferdinand ( whichever it was, he looked very useful ). We scored again as Reading made as many subs as us, when Camara lashed home from the edge of the box.

Sofaine looked useful - he looks like a cross between Anelka and Defoe, and he didn't stop running from the moment he got on the pitch and showed some nice touches and a very good workrate. I think he is definitely one to watch. Van Der Gouw replaced James for the final ten minutes when we were pushing for an equaliser.

Overall we didn't pay badly (I know!!), but to concede 5 goals against a division one side must have Roeder worried.