West Ham - 0 Reading - 1: A rainbow came out for Reading here yesterday, but for West Ham the storm clouds still refused to roll away. A goal after 78 seconds from Seol Ki-Hyeon brought Steve Coppell's side their third win in four Premiership matches, and already their promotion is looking more a matter of consolidation than mere survival.
That their lead survived for the best part of 90 minutes yesterday owed much to the efficiency and composure of Reading's defence in the face of frequent pressure from a West Ham side which rediscovered its spark in midfield but still failed to achieve the old combustion near goal.
Alan Pardew, the West Ham manager, was pleased with the effort and the attitude of his team, but the reality is that in league and Uefa Cup they have now lost five times in succession without scoring.
Pardew recalled Hayden Mullins, leaving Javier Mascherano on the bench, and the restoration of his partnership with Nigel Reo-Coker gave West Ham the midfield balance they had been lacking in recent games. Yet Pardew's decision to start the game with Carlos Tevez and Carlton Cole up front, based on what he considered promising signs from the pair in Palermo on Thursday, looked more bizarre the longer the match progressed.
Although Tevez buzzed around eagerly and posed the occasional threat from long range, Cole's touch consistently let him down and West Ham only achieved a significant presence in the Reading penalty area after the pair had given way to Teddy Sheringham and Bobby Zamora with 18 minutes remaining.
Pardew feels West Ham will find their normal rhythm once his back four has been restored to full strength. Maybe so, but chronic lack of goals is more about confidence in general and yesterday the attack badly missed the perception of the injured Lee Bowyer.
It took the 40-year-old Sheringham to provide West Ham's first truly penetrative passes near goal, and Zamora provided a presence in the Reading penalty which had been missing.
In the end, however, it was all to no avail. Reading defended capably until the last when Steve Sidwell, whose industry and discipline in midfield had typified the performance of the team as a whole, somehow managed to get back and head clear a lob from Yossi Benayoun which had left Marcus Hahnemann stranded and appeared certain to float in under the crossbar.
The effect of reuniting Mullins with Reo-Coker was evident from the moment West Ham began to move forward in earnest. By then, however, they had fallen behind to the sort of goal which looks spectacular from the stands but preventable from the opposing bench.
Bobby Convey tapped a free-kick to Seol just beyond the left-hand corner of the penalty area and the West Ham defence allowed the winger far too much time and space to work himself into the position some 25 yards out from which he beat Roy Carroll with a shot as thunderous as the afternoon.
"Wigan are our template," said Coppell.
Pardew will be more concerned about West Ham doing an Ipswich.
Guardian Service
