Early on Sidwell and Reo-Coker exchanged long-range efforts on goal, as West Ham edged an opening ten minutes which gave little clue as to what would follow. But on 12 minutes Brynjar Gunnarsson set Reading on their way with a carbon copy of Ibrahima Sonko's goal against Manchester United two days earlier. And within two minutes the Royals had doubled their lead thanks to Stephen Hunt's first Premiership goal, finishing at the back post after good work from Kevin Doyle and Steve Sidwell.
 | | Stephen Hunt celebrates his goal |
Nicky Shorey delivered for Ibrahima Sonko on 29 minutes having set up Gunnarsson's opener, Sonko's header striking Anton Ferdinand to go down as an own goal. With ten minutes to go until the break Kevin Doyle made it four, rolling the ball home from two yards out once the heroic Shorey had brilliantly beaten four West Ham defenders. Alan Curbishley's half-time team talk for his new West Ham charges manifestly failed to inspire - within ten minutes of the restart Leroy Lita added a fifth with his third goal in three games. And despite the replacement of struggling Ibrahima Sonko with Andre Bikey, Doyle rose to head home his second of the game - and tenth of the season - from a Shorey corner. Royals boss Steve Coppell was keeping his feet on the ground after the match. "Some weeks you feel you play well and get nothing, other weeks you might fluke a result - but not often in this division. "You have to earn your results and we earned ours today. "Kevin Doyle and Leroy Lita both looked as though they had a real appetite for the game, even though in recent matches they've hardly had a goalscoring opportunity." Midfielder Steve Sidwell was delighted with the performance. "Everything just fell into place. We took our chances well and it was a big relief to get the win. "I don't think they were awful, we just played well and everything came off for us. What killed them is the two goals in quick succession." "We needed to win today," agreed striker Leroy Lita. "All the lads knew it was an important game. "We're just concentrating on each game as it comes. Today was a great result and a great start to the year, but there's a lot of games to go." "We can't believe it," enthused Royals winger Glen Little. "Even though it doesn't feel like we've been having a nightmare, it's still six without a win and we've been looking over our shoulder up til now." | 
