Hull City 3 West Ham 3

The Irons were boosted by the return of Carlton Cole and Danny Gabbidon to the starting line-up and it looked good for them when they raced into an early lead.

Guillermo Franco's first goal for the club and a clever header from Jack Collison put the Irons 2-0 up with just 11 minutes on the clock.

Franco headed home a Junior Stanislas corner while the Mexican set up Collison with a long through ball that the Welsh midfielder looped over Matt Duke.

But just as they did against Sunderland at the end of last month Gianfranco Zola's men found it impossible to hang on to the two goal advantage.

Hull hit back when Jimmy Bullard's free-kick was deflected first off Scott Parker and then Cole to loop over Rob Green on 27 minutes.

The home side then levelled when Kamil Zayatte scored from a Steven Hunt free-kick just before half-time.

And the shell-shocked Hammers went into the break a goal behind after Julien Faubert was harshly judged to have fouled Craig Fagan, when it seemed the Hull player was backing into the Frenchman.

Bullard, once a West Ham trainee, smashed home the spot kick and it looked like the game was up for the visitors.

But the game took a turn their way when Bernard Mendy was shown a straight red card for upending Parker as the midfielder bore down on goal nine minutes into the second half.

The Irons took their time to make the numerical advantage count and it took Da Costa to put them level when he swept the ball home from a corner 15 minutes from time.

There were still chances for both sides at either end, with Hull unlucky not to be awarded a second penalty when Matty Upson appeared to climb all over Jan Venegoor of Hesselink but a draw was probably the fairest result.

It leaves the Hammers fourth from bottom of the Premier League and Zola knows his side have to improve defensively to get themselves out of trouble.

He said: "We are scoring a lot of goals, we just need to defend a little better.

"Certain things are not working well and we just need to focus and get them right. I didn't see the third goal as a penalty but Hull played well."

Hull City: Duke, Dawson, Gardner, Mendy, Zayatte, Hunt (Geovanni, 85), Bullard, Marney, Fagan, Altidore (Venegoor of Hesselink, 73), Garcia (McShane, 57). Unused subs: Myhill, Barmby, Kilbane, Boateng.

Sent off: Mendy.

Goals: Cole (og) 27, Zayatte 44, Bullard (pen) 45+1

West Ham: Green, Gabbidon, Faubert, Upson, Da Costa, Parker, Behrami (Hines, 60), Collison, Stanislas, Franco (Jiminez, 70), Cole. Unused subs: Kurucz, Spector, Ilunga, Kovac, Nouble.

Booked: Hines, Stansilas, Franco, Jiminez.

Goals: Franco 5, Collison 11, Da Costa 69.

Attendance: 24,909

Referee: Mark Clattenburg.