Late chances go a-begging as fans give Hammers the bird

West Ham Utd 1 Reading 1:A flurry of injury-time activity, during which Scott Parker missed one outstanding chance and Dean Ashton headed against a post, was never going to be enough to mute the chorus of home disapproval which followed the final whistle.

Reduced to 10 men after half an hour, and a goal down going into the break, Reading scored a deserved equaliser and had no problems containing a Hammers side badly lacking in creativity and, less forgivably, a decent work-rate.

Reading had begun brightly before Brynjar Gunnarsson's two-footed tackle on Hayden Mullins resulted in the referee, Peter Walton, showing a straight red card to the midfielder.

Apart from a Nolberto Solano free-kick West Ham had offered little until that point, nor did they thereafter until the very end. But shortly before half-time a fortunate rebound, when Carlton Cole miscontrolled on the edge of the Reading penalty area, gave the Peruvian an opening he took with some style, lifting the ball over a challenge with his left foot and then chipping Marcus Hahnemann with his right as the goalkeeper narrowed the angle.

That should have been that, as Curbishley acknowledged, but his team's nervousness after the break was painful to see. Reading were given all the time they needed to build attacks, rather than get out of shape by attacking on the break and it was no surprise when Nicky Shorey's intelligent ball into the penalty area after a corner was only half cleared and Dave Kitson steered a left-footed volley from close range beyond the goalkeeper, Robert Green.

The rest of the game was a disjointed affair, at least until whistles from the stands roused the home team to a final effort. Parker, who always looked West Ham's most likely - indeed, only - source of a winner, produced a tame effort after Mullins' pass gave him a clear shooting chance from eight yards and then Ashton twisted in mid-air to head against Hahnemann's right-hand upright from a corner kick.

Having acknowledged the referee had little choice other than to send off Gunnarsson, Reading boss Steve Coppell was angry over the booking of Stephen Hunt. The Waterford man was chasing hopefully when Green collided with his own player, Parker, before going through the usual pointing and accusing routine and the disbelieving Hunt found himself in the book. "I've got to speak up for Stephen Hunt, he was totally innocent and was booked because of past history," said Coppell.