Reading vs West Ham - Friendly August 2002

[Ginger Ninjas]

Can anyone point me in the direction of a match report and team lists for this match? Found the following on the HNA news archive, but no match report...

Reading's impressive pre-season programme came to an end tonight with an excellent 5-4 victory over Premiership West Ham United at the Madejski Stadium. The victory was Reading's seventh from the nine pre-season fixtures, with the only defeat coming at home last week against Charlton Athletic. The Royals can now look forward to the season ahead after seeing plenty of promising signs to show we're capable of doing something in Division One this season. Tonight's game was a great way to finish before the season kicks off at relegated Derby County on Saturday. Another low crowd of just over 7,000, saw Reading outplay West Ham United to take a deserved win after fighting back from two goals down. The visitors went 0-2 up after twenty five minutes, only to see Reading hit back with an amazing five goals in a row to go 5-2 up. Cureton grabbed the Royals first from a free-kick, and the impressive Darius Henderson made it 2-2 after scoring from his rebounded effort. Parkinson made it 3-2 and Rougier supplied the cross that saw Cureton score his second from close range, to make it 4-2 at half time. Cureton completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot before West Ham fought back later in the game to make the score respectable with two goals after several stoppages for mass substitutions. The nine goal spectacular, with Reading claiming the win, would have made it value for money for those that turned up - but the real test comes on Saturday.

[strap]

From Official site : The Royals gave themselves a massive confidence boost ahead of the new season by gaining a deserved 5-4 victory over a strong West Ham
United side in a cracking game at Madejski Stadium this evening.

It looked so different after 20 minutes, when the Hammers led 2-0 thanks to goals by Frederic Kanoute and Jermain Defoe. The Royals had started well and came close to opening the scoring when Darius Henderson's far post header was brilliantly kept out by David James.

Kanoute then had two good chances to give his side the lead, sending a close-range header wide and missing the target with a shot from 18 yards, but the French striker finally got his name on the scoresheet with a smart turn and left-footed shot past Phil Whitehead. Before long Defoe doubled the advantage with a 25 yard shot that skidded
and squirmed under Whitehead and into the net.

But then came the Royals goal deluge! Jamie Cureton got the ball rolling with an expertly placed 20 yard free-kick, struck low past James and into the right-hand corner after Henderson had been fouled. Then the outstanding Henderson levelled matters when he met Sammy Igoe's cross from a free-kick with a header that James saved well, but Darius reacted quickest to force the rebound over the line.

Phil Parkinson added a superb third, picking up a loose punch from James following an Anthony Rougier corner and slashing an
unstoppable left-footed half-volley past the former Liverpool keeper from 15 yards. Then, amazingly still in the first half, came the best of the bunch, as Rougier danced past Sebastian Schemmel and whipped a low, curling cross behind the back four and perfectly into
Cureton's path, and the front man delivered a decisive first-time right-footed finish past the helpless keeper from 10 yards.

So 4-2 to the Royals at half-time, and early in the second half it was five thanks to a controversial refereeing decision. Sammy Igoe
burst through the middle and surged into the penalty area only to be thwarted by James who came out sharply to collect the ball. However, referee Paul Armstrong stunned the players and crowd by awarding a penalty that nobody had appealed for, presumably for a foul on Igoe. Jamie Cureton wasn't complaining, and he stepped up to fire the
spot-kick into the bottom left-hand corner, giving James no chance.

The Hammers rallied, and pulled it back to 5-3 when Joe Cole met Michael Carrick's low cross from the right and fired a fierce shot
into the back of the net, and ten minutes from time the Hammers gave themselves a chance of salvaging the game when substitute Titi
Camara scored a fanastic individual goal, racing to the edge of the area and crashing a rising shot into the roof of the net.

But the Royals held firm, claiming a morale-boosting victory and setting themselves up perfectly for Saturday's trip to Derby County,
who lost 2-1 at home against Lazio in their final friendly tonight.

From : http://www.btinternet.com/~rfc1871/play ... estham.htm

It was back to 4-4-2 as Reading fielded a starting line-up mostly containing reserves. Of the players that took the field, only Phil Whitehead, John Mackie, the two full-backs and possibly Sammy Igoe can expect a place in our first choice eleven. West Ham on the other hand put out more-or-less their best team.

After some initial exchanges where we seemed to threaten with deep crosses to the far post but failed to capitalise on this, it really did look like Reading reserves against a Premiership first team, as the visitors dominated the match and scored two goals. The first came after a good move to get the ball into the box, followed by a quick turn and shot that beat Whitehead at his near post. The second was a mishit shot from outside the area that the Reading keeper allowed to squirm under his body.

There's no doubt that from that point on, West Ham eased up and this allowed Reading to get back into the game. The referee awarded us a rather dubious free-kick on the edge of the area after a foul on Darius Henderson, and Jamie Cureton struck the ball sweetly around the wall and into the net.

The equaliser came from another free-kick, this time after a foul on Graeme Murty wide on the right. Igoe swung the ball to the far post where Henderson should have buried it. However, the keeper made a decent enough save, except for the fact that he pushed the ball straight back to Henderson who knocked it in at the second attempt.

Five minutes later, we had another. From an Anthony Rougier corner, the West Ham goalkeeper failed to collect the ball, and it bounced out to Phil Parkinson who fired home just inside the post.

As if that wasn't enough, Reading's best goal of the match came just before half-time when Anthony Rougier beat the right-back with embarrassing ease, and for a change put over a decent low cross between the last line of defence and goalkeeper. Predator Jamie Cureton was on hand to stab the ball past the keeper, who on this occasion had no chance.

Overall, it had been a half that both defences would want to forget. We had been put in trouble on several occasions due to Whitehead's inability to claim crosses, and he was clearly at fault for the second goal. The West Ham goalkeeper should have done better with three of our four goals, and fully deserved the taunts he received from the Reading fans about the player he had replaced in their starting line-up.

Early in the second half, a good Reading move left Igoe running into a scoring position when he was pulled back in the penalty area. The linesman gave the decision, and although some defenders protested, it was clearly the correct decision. They were obviously just trying to protect themselves from dressing-room blame after the match. In a league game, the culprit would have been sent off as well. Before we took the penalty John Salako replaced Rougier, but it was Cureton who made no mistake with the penalty kick to claim his hat-trick.

Both sides made a large number of substitutions in the remainder of the game, and the West Ham players who came on clearly had something to prove, as they upped their game considerably. Reading suffered from an inability to keep the ball and conceded a third goal after a slick passing move (albeit past static defenders). After we had changed our midfield, and in particular brought on Kevin Watson, I was hoping that we would see some better passing, but if anything things got worse as we conceded possession on a regular basis.

With ten minutes left, Adi Viveash gave the ball away in a dangerous position, not for the first time, and this set up a chance for the so-called Premiership side to pull a goal back as a hard shot was fired past Whitehead. Although there was more pressure in the closing minutes of the game, Reading somehow held out to clinch the victory.

It remains to be seen what selection headaches this performance has given Alan Pardew. I assume that his plan was to play 4-5-1 against Derby on Saturday, which would mean no place for any of the forwards or midfielders who started this game (except possibly Igoe). I can't really see him changing his mind. On the other hand, we clearly have real problems at the back, and given that Adrian Whitbread is not going to be match-fit by Saturday even if he is over his injury, then that is likely to continue. There could be some high-scoring matches in the near future.

[Ginger Ninjas]

Cheers strap, very informative as always! I'm going to WHU away with a firend who's first RFC match was that friendly, interested to see how many of the players would be involved in both games - only Shorey and Murty for RFC. Wouldn't imagine that any of the West Ham players involved then will be in the squad for next week's game?

[rabidbee]

Cheers strap, very informative as always! I'm going to WHU away with a firend who's first RFC match was that friendly, interested to see how many of the players would be involved in both games - only Shorey and Murty for RFC. Wouldn't imagine that any of the West Ham players involved then will be in the squad for next week's game?

You missed Harps, coming on as a sub for Sammy Igloo.