Black Cats prove an unlucky Halloween omen for Zola's boys

02 November 2009

GOAL KING COLE: Carlton Cole celebrates his strike at the Stadium of Light.

Sunderland 2 West Ham United 2

Gianfranco Zola saw his Halloween treat turn into a Halloween trick after his side somehow managed to turn three points into one with a suicidal second-half display against ten men, at the Stadium of Light, writes STEVE BLOWERS.

With the Hammers looking for their first Premier League victory since their opening day win at Wolverhampton Wanderers, both Guillermo Franco and Carlton Cole conjured up the goals that had put West Ham in control, thanks to an energetic, enterprising and exciting first-half performance.

And even though Andy Reid had reduced the deficit just before the break, depleted Sunderland still had it all to do after the interval, when Kenwyne Jones was dismissed in first-half stoppage time.

But Zola's men somehow contrived to throw it all away in the second period, as former Hammers' trainee, Kieran Richardson stunned them with a late equaliser before Radoslav Kovac was sent off in the dying moments.

Following their own fantastic fight-back against Arsenal the previous weekend, 19th-placed, West Ham made just one enforced switch as Kovac replaced the suspended Scott Parker, who was so harshly dismissed in the 2-2 draw with the Gunners.

That morale-boosting point at Upton Park, certainly looked to have given the Hammers new-found impetus on Wearside and Mark Noble soon forced Craig Gordon to save his curling 18-yarder.

Cole also scuffed meekly to Gordon before hooking another speculative effort high and wide from distance, while Valon Behrami forced the Black Cats' stopper to beat away his stinging 15-yarder.

It was certainly proving to be an industrious opening 30 minutes for the hungry Hammers against a Sunderland side that had recalled Reid, Darren Bent and Steed Malbranque following their Carling Cup, 4th round, penalty shoot-out defeat at the hands of Aston Villa in midweek.

Although, Bent had wastefully sent a wayward, early header wide from eight yards and Paulo Da Silva almost deceived the flat-footed Robert Green with a 20-yard bobbler, Steve Bruce's side hardly looked like a top-half team sitting comfortably in ninth-place.

Sure enough, on the half-hour mark, the Hammers took a deserved lead, when Behrami sent Jack Collison behind the pushed-up home defence, who could only look on in horror as the Welsh-international midfielder squared into the six-yard box, where Franco snared his first goal in English football.

Seconds later, creator Collison almost engineered another, when he crossed into the juggling Cole, whose awesome strength saw him completely outwit Michael Turner before unleashing a stinging ten-yarder that Gordon brilliantly clawed away.

But on 35 minutes, that Anglo-Welsh combination was given a second chance to breach home defences, and this time Collison sent Cole steamrollering into the Sunderland area, where the England striker made no mistake in holding off Nyron Nosworthy, to bag his sixth goal of the season from 12 yards.

The smiles of delight on the Hammers' bench were matching those of the visiting fans amongst a partisan crowd of 39,033, until the retreating Kovac and Herita Ilunga sandwiched Malbranque on the edge of the area.

After being booked for taking his protests too far, the Czech international's frustration was then exacerbated, when Reid floated an inch-perfect, 38th-minute free-kick over the wall and under the left-hand angle of the static Green,.

Sunderland's delight quickly turned to despair, though, in stoppage time, when the consequently booked Ilunga theatrically tangled with Jones on the half-way line, before being shoved by the raised arms of the retaliating Trinidad & Tobago striker, who was duly red-carded by referee Andre Marriner.

Once again, Bruce had to re-write the script of his half-time team-talk and within seconds of the restart, Franco met Noble's inch-perfect corner with a point-blank header that the grateful Gordon somehow beat away, to keep his side in the contest.

Cole also chose the wrong option, when he shot across goal instead of squaring into the danger zone but soon it was to be Green's turn to produce the acrobatics.

First, the England 'keeper turned Bent's low, angled shot aside and when Reid floated over the consequent corner, Green somehow palmed out Turner's header as it flew towards the left-hand angle.

And with spirited Sunderland now looking to have a dozen bodies rather than ten, West Ham's one-man advantage was counting for nothing. The barnstorming Bent blazed over and then, midway through the second half, the climbing Cana sent a header thudding back off the bar, before Green grappled Da Silva's follow-up to safety.

With their backs well and truly to the Wearside wall, rudderless West Ham introduced Alessandro Diamanti and then Zavon Hines at the expense of the injured Behrami (calf) and the flagging Franco, but roared on by an ocean of red and white-shirted fans, the care-free Black Cats were simply given licence to roam.

And with just a quarter-hour remaining, they rustled up an inevitable equaliser, when Richardson followed-up at the far post after Bent's angled effort looped off the unlucky Matthew Upson,

By now, West Ham were a shadow of the side that had been well on the road to a comfortable victory, and although Cole was then foiled in the act of shooting and Hines, Diamanti plus Noble went agonisingly close, a miserable second-half was summed up by Kovac's late dismissal for an equally disappointing foul on Turner that left both sides with ten men, two goals and a single point.