Reading tore apart West Ham on New Years Day!
The Hammers came no closer to dragging themselves out of the relegation zone.
Brynjar Gunnarsson headed in from Nicky Shorey’s free-kick on 12 minutes to bag his first Premiership goal despite a fairly bright start from the visitors.
A lacklustre West Ham defence left Stephen Hunt free at the back post to head in the second for the Royals.
More bad luck was to follow when Hammers midfielder Lee Bowyer left the field after 18 minutes with a dislocated shoulder and was replaced by Shaun Newton, back after a seven-month drugs ban.
From that point on it was no contest, West Ham looked like a side struggling for form, and Alan Curbishley has a long way to go to turn them around.
To rub salt into the wound, Anton Ferdinand headed in his own goal to make it 3-0 inside 30 minutes.
Kevin Doyle then found his goal scoring form again with the fourth after Nicky Shorey went on a run past three or four West Ham players to put in a ball behind the defence for James Harper to cross for him to slot home.
Half-time
Reading 4 v West Ham 0
West Ham had offered next to nothing upfront in the first half and Marlon Harewood was replaced by defender Jonathan Spector at half-time; I suspect that Curbishley was looking at damage limitation at this point.
However this had little effect on the rampant Royals who conjured up a fifth through Leroy Lita on 53 minutes.
Sidwell was again on hand to provide the cross into the box to Lita, who sidefooted the ball under Green.
Lita nearly added a second when he met substitute John Oster’s cross, only for Green to clear any danger and he got down well again to smartly save Doyle’s thudding attempt.
The one-way traffic continued and Reading could have scored a couple more before Doyle headed in Shorey’s corner to complete the rout.
Full time
Reading 6 v West Ham 0
Reading boss Steve Coppell:
“I knew it was a real test physically and that’s why the performance was surprising as it has been so demanding for us recently.
“I didn’t think the players would go to the well again or have the legs for it.
“But once we scored the first goal it was our best spell of football since I’ve been here. They were creative and wanted to be on the front foot.”
West Ham manager Alan Curbishley:
“This hasn’t just happened and the players have to realise a couple of things very quickly.
“They have not scored a lot of goals and it is a confidence thing. But how do you get it back? By winning games.
“We couldn’t live with Reading but we have to rally around now and get three-pointers. We need to pick up points to give ourselves a chance.”
