West Ham manager Matt Beard was left to rue a host of missed chances as his side fell to a 1-0 defeat at home to Reading.

The Hammers went a goal down after 25 minutes, when a whipped cross from Natasha Harding was met at the front post by Lauren Bruton.

The hosts had the opportunity to equalise in the second half after Rachel Daly was brought down in the box, but Kenza Dali’s penalty was saved.

“We’ve got to draw positives from the performance,” Beard said. “We’ve got to to draw positives from the chances that we created. I’d be worried if we weren’t creating chances, but today we just haven’t taken them for whatever reason.

“We had some glorious chances earlier on in the game to go in front. Maybe we could have been out of sight. It was the same again in the second half.

“For whatever reason it just didn’t go for us in front of goal.”

The Hammers debuted a new limited edition pink kit in support of Breast Cancer Awareness month.

“It’s obviously for a great cause,” Beard added. “I have to say the club are brilliant with these campaigns.

“From my perspective, I’m really proud of the football club and proud of the players for talking about real tough issues and being in the public domain with it.

“It’s an honour and a pleasure to be part of the club and the group that do these campaigns.”