Little Home Comfort for Curbishley As Kitson Claims Point

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. In fact, if decibels are any sort of measure, Alan Curbishley is not much more popular with the West Ham faithful than his predecessor, Alan Pardew, was shortly before he was sacked last December, and it was not hard to see why.

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

Not that Curbishley saw anything wrong with his side's effort. "Of course we should have taken advantage of the sending-off, and it wasn't spectacular, but we had enough chances to have scored a winner," the West Ham manager said after a result that leaves the east Londoners with two victories in nine matches at home.

"I can't ask any more of the players I have available; they're giving everything they've got," Curbishley went on. "Sometimes it isn't good enough, when we're drawing games here we perhaps think we should win, but overall I'm delighted with them." It was, Curbishley acknowledged, an opinion that might not be shared by every supporter.

It was telling that for his opposite number, Steve Coppell, coming away with a point was pleasing but nothing really to celebrate. "With 10 men we can play in our basic shape without really distorting it. It's a training ground routine many clubs do," he said. "If you're communicating well, you can withstand it most of the time, and we were controlled. It's not a marathon test, by any means."

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. The Icelander got plenty of the ball, and Mullins, to his credit, made nothing of it, but both Gunnarsson's feet were off the ground and, given the current determination to drive this kind of challenge out of the game, he can have expected nothing less.

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 an attempted 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, as far as Reading were concerned, a satisfyingly 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, the thing that left a bitter taste in Coppell's mouth was the booking of Stephen Hunt, the Premier League's pantomime villain. The Irishman was doing no more than chasing hopefully when Green made an idiot of himself by colliding with one of his own players, Parker, before the goalkeeper went 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 his manager.

To judge by the comments of departing supporters, the visit of Manchester United on Saturday does not fill them with optimism. "We'd have a better chance at their place," was one disgruntled opinion which, given West Ham have won five times on their travels, is almost certainly true.

Man of the match Dave Kitson

Led Reading's front line on his own after Gunnarsson's dismissal but did so intelligently, ensuring he was usually available. Held the ball up well, justifying Coppell's insistence that he gives the Royals a dimension not offered by his other strikers.

Best moment The manner in which he reacted quickly to take his one chance with a left-footed volley.