Sunderland 2 West Ham 2

The only change for West Ham was Kovac in for the suspended Parker. Of the two teams Sunderland started the brighter and the more hungry. In the 5th minute Bent had a golden opportunity and had an almost open goal from 8 yards but headed wide of the right hand post. In the 11th minute Da Silva had a 25 yards effort, after the West Ham defence sat back and no-one came out to close him down. His effort just missed wide of the right hand post.

After ten minutes West Ham started to come into the game. Noble and Cole both forced saves from the keeper from the edge of the penalty area. In the 30th minute West Ham broke forward, pulled back the ball from the byline for Franco who slotted home from three yards. Six minutes later and it was 2-0 as Collison played a brilliant ball into Cole's path running into the area for Cole to score from about the penalty spot.

Straight from the restart Cole broke forward and was fouled as he almost went clear. The ref didn't give the obvious foul and Sunderland then broke up field quickly, Kovac won the ball cleanly on the edge of the West Ham area but the ref this time for some reason did give a foul. From the freekick Reid beat Green to make it 2-1.

If that wasn't enough excitement in the 45th minute Jones pushed Ilunga in the face and was sent off. Ilunga was also booked, presumably for putting his face in the way of Jones' hands.


One minute into the second half Noble won a corner. His corner was then headed goalwards by Franco from six yards but Gordon saved. A minute after that Green saved well diving full stretch to his right from Bent. From the resulting corner Green then made a brilliant save from a Turner header from 6 yards. A minute after that Bent blasted over from 8 yards when it looked easier to score.

In the 53rd minute Cole fired across the goal from ten yards, just missing wide of the left hand post. In the 59th minute Cana went in with two feet on Cole and should have been given a straight red, the ref didn't even give him a second yellow. A minute after that Cole was booked for wearing the claret and blue of West Ham (at least there didn't seem to be any other reason for the booking).

In the 65th minute Cana hit the post with a header from a corner. Da Silva then headed the rebound goalwards and Green managed to scramble a save. In the 67th minute Diamanti was brought on for Behrami. In the 72nd minute Franco made way for Hines.

The changes didn't make any difference to West Ham's poor second half performance. In the 76th minute a bent cross was deflected up and over Green and Richardson had an easy tap in at the far post. After that Hines had two good chances but shot wide. Diamanti had a chance that missed by about a yard. For Sunderland Bent had two good chances but missed with both.

In the 86th minute Kovac ran into a Sunderland player and got a second yellow. Neither of his cards was deserved but he found himself sent off. In the 89th minute Noble had an effort cleared off the line. In the 90th minute Bent headed wide yet again.

Despite one of the worst refereeing performances ever West Ham have to be hugely disappointed by another really poor second half performance. This is the second time this season we have gone into the second half of a game in the lead facing ten men and thrown the win away.