NO WONDER Gianfranco Zola is losing his hair and West Ham might lose their Premier League status. Having fought back from a 2-0 deficit against Arsenal last week, they contrived to throw away a two-goal lead here even though Sunderland played half the match with only 10 men after Kenwyne Jones was sent off for raising his hands to the face of Herita Ilunga.

The visitors might have left disappointed but this was a breathtaking and hugely entertaining example of the English game in which both sides deserved to emerge with a point. Guillermo Franco and Carlton Cole struck for West Ham but Andy Reid pulled one back before half-time and Kieran Richardson grabbed the leveller late in the game.

At times the action threatened to spill over as Andre Marriner started waving the yellow cards and there was some surprise that only Radoslav Kovac ended up joining Jones in taking an early shower when he was sent off late on.

“I’m very upset about the second half,” Zola said. “We have to learn to be more cynical and control the game more. It’s something we have to come to terms with before the situation gets worse.” Zola also referred to an “intense atmosphere in the stadium and on the bench”, which was a huge understatement. At other grounds the crowd might have been silenced when the opposition scored twice, but not here.

The first goal came when the Sunderland defence was caught static as Jack Collison was played through and his cross into the six-yard area was rolled in by Franco. Collison was also involved in the second when he outmuscled Steed Malbranque near the half-way line and played in Cole, who blasted the ball past Craig Gordon.

Sunderland got themselves back in the game six minutes before half-time when Reid curled a free kick beautifully over the wall.

There had already been a number of bookings at that stage and tempers flared on the sideline when Franco blatantly dived. Jones seemed to respond to the general fervour by reacting when Ilunga climbed over him. Jones shoved him to the ground and he was dismissed.

One sensed that Zola didn’t quite know how to approach the second half both a goal and a player up and Sunderland dominated.

Darren Bent was a particular nuisance. He constantly lost the two centre-halves and he might have scored himself twice before he set up the equaliser. Having pulled away to the byline he put in a cross that deflected off the boot of Matthew Upson and over Robert Green’s head before Richardson risked collision with the upright to poke the ball home. “We did enough to win even with 10 men,” Steve Bruce said. “Ilunga’s play-acting for the sending-off left a lot to be desired. There was a lot of play-acting in the match. We’re in danger of turning it into a game for pansies, which would be a real shame, because that game had everything.”

Star man: Jack Collison (West Ham)

Yellow cards: Sunderland: Cana, Bent, Turner West Ham: Ilunga, Cole Red cards: Jones, Kovac Referee: A Marriner

Attendance: 39,033

SUNDERLAND: Gordon 7, Da Silva 7, Nosworthy 5, Turner 6, Richardson 6, Malbranque 6 (McCartney 81min), Cana 6, Henderson 6, Reid 7, Jones 4, Bent 7.

WEST HAM: Green 6, Spector 6, Upson 5, Tomkins 5, Ilunga 5, Behrami 5 (Diamanti 67min), Noble 7, Kovac 6, Collison 7, Cole 7, Franco 6 (Hines 72min)