Repka surges forward much to the shock of the annoucners. Nothing comes of it. Calamity James strikes again as he spills a shot but recovers well. Left foot shot by Defoe. Save from Marcus. Twelve minutes to go, Murray off for Tyson.
Hughes with a yellow. Did not sound like much but that stuff evens out over the course of a season. Andersson fouled on the outside. Hughes almost talks himself into another yellow but restraint is showed instead of a card. Pearce heads down a ball and Connolly with a chance ... eventually Quinn has a go but it results in nothing. Defoe goes it on his own, low shot is crap. Should have gone to Connolly. Seems like there is some bad blood between the two.
Again Defoe goes on his own disregarding Connolly. Nice shot, nice save by Marcus. Marcus kick goes all the way back to James. West Ham free kick, no idea why but we will take it. "please bear with us on this lady in the cab metaphor, we will get there in the end."
Connolly picks up a yellow. Free kick deep in West Ham end. "We want your manager!" struck up again by West Ham fans. James makes the catch as a bit of shoving going on in the box. All sorted out. Time is ticking away. Repka puts it out of play. Throw to Reading. Three minutes of stoppage.
West Ham still up, 1-0. Into injury time. Horlock gets a yellow for a tackle on Forster. Nervy times on this free kick. Comes in from Watson, played away. hughes dinks one in but Quinn is fouled. Free kick burns up a few more seconds.
Excellent game for Marcus. 3 top drawer saves. Reading absolutely dreadful in the first half, looking like a team who'd spent the previous week talking about who'd be in charge rather than training. Improved in the second half but the damage was done and West Ham were able to soak up any Reading pressure, of which there wasn't nearly enough. Reading's decision to play in their all black away kit was possibly not a wise choice on a hot day in East London. Reading also had a lot of problems adjusting to the fact that after moving the pitch towards the new main stand, the touchline down one side is actually about 15 yards further in than you'd expect. A surprisingly quiet crowd all round for what had been billed as a volatile fixture. In a game where both teams spent all afternoon running at defences it was a bit surprising that the only goal came from a centre-back from a corner. A wait until Tuesday night to put things right when Cardiff are in town. Extra fun can be had by running a sweep on in which minute riot police will be called in to quell the usual disturbances in the away end. Further bets on the amount of police horses this involves, and how many of them will urinate on the pitch add extra fun (Marcus would be advised to not be defending the South goal in the second half for that very reason).