We all know that during the Christmas period that the games ‘come thick and fast’ which means that the week 26 December to 1 January in Hammer’s History has seen more than its fair share of games. As a consequence I have split the week into two parts with today’s article looking just at Boxing Day; with the rest of the week covered in a separate post.
Of the 45 Boxing Day games played since 1958 we have won 13, drawn 12 and lost 20. Although the overall record is not so good in the higher scoring games we have had the edge. Starting in 1958 we completed a Christmas double over Tottenham with a 4-1 victory at White Hart Lane (having beaten them 2-1 at Upton Park the previous day). There have also been high scoring victories on the road at Blackpool (4-1 in 1996), Chelsea (4-2 in 1973 to climb off the bottom of the table), and Portsmouth (4-1 in 2008). On the flip side too much pudding and sherry was the harbinger of defeats at Villa (4-1 in 1975) and Tottenham (4-0 in 1986). We had also played Tottenham on Boxing Day a year earlier and the 1-0 defeat to an 85th minute Steve Perryman goal will forever be one of those ‘if-only’ matches from the memorable 1985/6 season.
A Boxing Day home fixture at Upton Park was often something special over the years including victories over Leicester (4-1 in 1967), Charlton (5-0 in 2000) and Derby (4-0 in 2001). Possibly the most unusual Boxing Day, however, was in 1963 when 10 Division 1 games returned a record 66 goals. Included in this was total was an 8-2 thrashing of West Ham by league leaders Blackburn Rovers. A contemporary report summed up the game as follows:
“West Ham’s tactics were all wrong and their covering terrible. Blackburn on a rain-lashed, pudding of a pitch, banged the ball about with poise and precision. It was attrition warfare, as Fred Pickering opened the scoring after seven minutes and Bryan Douglas made it two after half an hour. Before the break, it was 4-0 with goals from Andy McEvoy and Mike Ferguson. In the second half, Pickering and McEvoy strolled through the Hammers’ ‘woefully weak defence’ to claim their hat tricks and, despite Johnny Byrne’s double, there was no way back.”
The full list of results for that day:
Interestingly, in the return set of fixtures which took place just two days later: West Ham (with juts one change; Bovington in for Peters) beat Blackburn 3-1 at Ewood Park to begin a run in which Rovers eventually slid down to seventh in the table; Ipswich took their revenge on Fulham winning 4-2 at Portman Road (although they were relegated at the end of the season); Manchester United recovered from their mauling against Burnley to hammer them 5-1 at Old Trafford; and Bolton overcame Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 in their return game.
v Blackburn (H): Standen, Bond, Burkett, Peters, Brown, Moore, Brabrook, Boyce, Byrne, Hurst, Sissons
v Blackburn (A): Standen, Bond, Burkett, Bovington, Brown, Moore, Brabrook, Boyce, Byrne, Hurst, Sissons
Yesterday we published 
In the deep mid-winter of 1979 West Ham had scheduled their pre-Christmas fixture against Cambridge United for a Friday night to avoid clashing with the last Saturday, last minute shopping frenzy (it was not possible to buy West Ham underwear for your wife in the club shop at the time). This is often cited as one of the most memorable Boleyn experiences by many of the 11,000 or so hardy souls (of which I was one) who battled along on that bitterly cold December evening. The match started in light snow and after 45 minutes West Ham were a goal down and it was time for a hot, half-time cup of Bovril. During the interval Bill Remfry played Mike Oldfield’s ‘In Dulchi Jubilo’ and encouraged the crowd to dance just to keep warm; an invitation taken to extreme by one supporter who streaked onto the pitch. In the second half the snow turned into a full-on blizzard but goals from Stewart, Pearson and Neighbour turned the game around to give the Hammers a 3-1 victory.
More Points But………
If a restaurant told you that they weren’t too bothered about the food that they served up as all they were interested in was getting their hygiene licence renewed would you still be tempted to go along? I don’t think I would and so was surprised to hear so many at the club extolling the win ugly approach after the Burnley game and telling us that there would be no ‘sexy’ football for the time being. Possibly the comments were taken out of context as we seem to be a favourite target in the press for negative stories right now, but even so as a message to give it is an injudicious one. I am not even sure that is ‘sexy’ that we are looking for but neither is it grandma’s bloomers; most fans would, I believe, happily settle for organisation, passion, commitment, effort and decisiveness. Press home the advantage don’t retreat and attempt to defend it.
Although Burnley have been only occasional visitors to the Premier League their years spent in the top division of English football (they were a founder member of the Football League in 1888) is roughly similar to our own. In the days of the leveller playing field they actually managed to win the First Division title on two occasions; initially in 1921 and then again, under manager Harry Potts, when they become the first of 8 different sides to be crowned champions during the 1960’s. The interesting feature of that campaign was that all other games had already been completed while Burnley had an outstanding fixture at Manchester City to fulfil. The Clarets needed to win to become champions which they duly did to step into top spot for the first time that season. As an aside only 9 of the 22 teams that competed in that 1959/60 season are in the Premier League today.
Fifteen rounds of games in the Premier League have now been completed. That means we have now predicted the results of 150 matches. In Week 15, Rich again came out on top scoring 8 points while Geoff and Lawro could only scrape together 4 points each. In this challenge we award one point for a correct result, and a further two points (making three in total) if the score prediction is spot on.
