Category: History

In the mid 1960’s West Ham had featured in two successive cup finals by winning the FA European Cup Winners Cups.  On 21 December 1965 they were set firmly on course for a third consecutive final appearance thanks to a 5-2 League Cup semi-final first leg victory against Cardiff at Upton Park.  Goals from Bovington, Brabrook, Byrne, Hurst and Sissons effectively wrapped up the tie which was sealed just over a month later with a 5-1 second leg win at Ninian Park.

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.

Parkes, Stewart, Lampard, Bonds, Martin, Devonshire, Allen, Pearson, Cross (Pike), Brooking, Neighbour

The season of goodwill has frequently paired West Ham with close neighbours Tottenham Hotspur in the run up to Christmas and they were also the opponents on West Ham’s last ever Christmas Day fixture.

Defeat at White Hart Lane on Christmas Eve 1960 was offset by victories both home and away in the following years.  In 1967 West Ham won 2-1 at Upton Park on 23 December (Bonds, Dear) and on 20 December 1969 they were also victorious by a 2-0 scoreline at White Hart Lane (Peters, Hurst).  The points were shared in a thrilling topsy-turvy 4-4 away draw on 22 December 1962.  West Ham were behind 2-0 and 3-2 before leading 4-3 and conceding an injury time leveller.  West Ham’s goals were shared between Peters, Kirkup, Boyce and Scott and the match was also notable for an unexpected hat-trick by Dave Mackay for Spurs.

The Christmas Day fixture was in 1958 at the Boleyn Ground in front of 26,178 spectators.  After a goalless first half West Ham, inspired by Phil Woosnam, raced into a 2 – 0 lead with goals from John Dick and Vic Keeble; both of whom worked like Trojans according to the news report at the time.  Woosnam was then badly crocked by Spurs defender Maurice Norman and with no substitutes at the time spent the remainder of the game limping along the left wing.  This allowed Tottenham to pull one back but the Hammers held on to win 2-1.  In the return fixture at White Hart Lane on the following day (Boxing Day) West Ham completed the double with a resounding 4-1 victory with goals from Bond, Keeble, Dick and Own Goal.

Gregory, Bond, Cantwell, Malcolm, Brown, Smith, Grice, Woosnam, Keeble, Dick, Musgrove

Andy Smillie replaced the injured Woosnam for the Boxing Day fixture otherwise it was the same team.

Notable Birthdays

21 December          Paul Heffer                         69
21 December          Cheikhou Kouyate           27
22 December          Phil Woosnam                   d. 2013
22 December          Bill Green                            66
24 December          Diafro Sakho                      27

It was sad to read yesterday of the death of Peter Brabrook who featured as a flying winger for the Hammers between October 1962 and January 1968.  Peter made 215 appearances for West Ham scoring 43 times and was part of the victorious 1964 FA Cup winning side.

On 17 December 1966 Brabrook was in the West Ham side that visited Stamford Bridge to play his old team, Chelsea in a First Division fixture.  The Hammers made an uncharacteristic strong start to the game and were 2-0 to the good after 30 minutes with Brabrook himself scoring the first and Martin Peters the second.  Tommy Baldwin pulled one back for Chelsea just before the break prompting a change in the direction of the match and ten minutes into the second half the hosts were leading 3-2 (Tony Hately, Charlie Cooke).  Undeterred, West Ham regrouped to score 3 goals in an 8 minute spell (John Sissons (2) and a Johnny Byrne penalty) and with 10 minutes to go continued to hold a 5-3 advantage.  Bobby Tambling then scored from the penalty spot and then completed the scoring in the dying minutes with one that came off his shin to make the final score 5-5.  These goals elevated Tambling to Chelsea’s all-time record goal-scorer; a position that he held until overtaken in by Lampard Junior in 2013.

Standen, Bovington, Charles J (Burnett), Peters, Brown, Moore, Brabrook, Boyce, Byrne, Hurst, Sissons

On the 15 December 1971 it was the second leg of the Football League Cup semi-final against Stoke City.  Confidence was high with West Ham having won the first leg in the previous week by 2 goals to 1.  This was a full-bloodied affair under the Upton Park floodlights but with Stoke the better side on the night it remained goalless until the 73^rd minute when a mix-up in the West Ham defence between Tommy Taylor and John McDowell allowed John Ritchie to convert a hopeful cross.  No away goals rule in this competition at the time and the game went into 30 minutes of extra time.  With the clock slowly ticking away Harry Redknapp was put through on goal only to be hauled down by a flying Gordon Bank’s rugby tackle.  Not considered a sending off offence at the time it was then Banks against Geoff Hurst for the resulting penalty.  Hurst had scored from the spot in the first leg and had a tremendous penalty record and so most in the 38,000 crowd considered it a formality and were already making plans for their trip back to Wembley.  Hurst adopted his usual pile-driver approach to penalty kicks but somehow Banks managed to deflect the thundering shot over the bar.  There was just enough time to take the resulting corner before the final whistle signaled that a replay was going to be required.

Ferguson, McDowell, Lampard, Bonds, Taylor, Moore, Redknapp, Best, Hurst, Brooking, Robson

More League Cup action (then known as the Worthington Cup) exactly 28 years later with a 5^th round home tie against Aston Villa.    Ian Taylor put Villa ahead in the first half only for Lampard Junior to steer home a pass from Paolo Di Canio for a second half equaliser.   Dion Dublin appeared to win the game for the visitors with an added time volley but there was still time for Paul Kitson to win a penalty which then Di Canio then converted.  Extra time was goalless and so the game went to penalties which ended in West Ham’s favour when Gareth Southgate missed his sudden death kick.  Of course the game is best remembered for the Mannygate affair where West Ham fielded an ineligible player when Emmanuel Omoyinmi came on as an extra time substitute for Paulo Wanchope.  Omoyinmi had previously played both legs in an earlier round of the competition while on loan at Gillingham and was thus ineligible.  The match against Villa was replayed which the Hammers eventually lost 1-3.

Hislop, R Ferdinand, Margas, Lomas, Ruddock, Cole (Kitson), Sinclair, Wanchope (Omoyinmi), Di Canio, Lampard, Keller

Notable Birthdays

12 December     Nobby Solano                    42
15 December     Aaron Cresswell               27
16 December     Reece Oxford                    18
17 December     Andre Ayew                       27
17 December     John Bond                           d. 2012
17 December     Joe Kirkup                           77

Scanning through the list of results over the years for the week 5 – 11 December the one thing that stood out was the number of times that West Ham have conceded 4 goals; let’s hope it is not an omen for the week ahead.

There were 4-0 defeats to Manchester City (1969), Leeds United (1998), Everton (1991), Bolton (2006) and Manchester United (2009). The Hammers fared marginally better losing only 4-1 to Liverpool (2013), 4-2 to Burnley (1966) and 4-3 to Wrexham (1978). I couldn’t find a 4-4 game but there was a 5 all against Newcastle in 1960. So leaky defences and heavy defeats are nothing new and it seems that it was not unusual for the Hammers to go down even before the Christmas decorations went up (or Noddy Holder started wishing Everybody Happy Christmas through the public address in Tescos).

You may remember a few weeks ago we featured an impressive and memorable 7-0 League Cup thrashing of Don Revie’s Dirty Leeds side. The next round of that tournament took place in December 1966 with a visit to Bloomfield Road to take on Blackpool, also in the first division at the time. A midweek evening kick-off meant no night out on the Golden Mile the night before and ended with West Ham winning 3-1, with goals from Hurst (2) and Byrne, to set up a semi-final appearance against West Bromwich Albion.

Standen, Burnett, Charles, Bovington, Brown, Moore, Boyce, Hurst, Byrne, Peters, Sissons

Five years later West Ham had already reached the semi-final of the same competition and embarked on what would become an epic series of games against Stoke City. The first of the scheduled two legged tie saw the Hammers travel to the Victoria Ground for a very cold Wednesday evening kick-off.

I was in the 6th form at school in Barking at the time and all through December we would spend the evening carol singing in aid of Cancer Research (or the Imperial Cancer Fund (ICF?)as it was then known). I can remember ending the evening at someone’s house to watch the TV highlights and with no internet back then we were unaware of the score as we watched the game.

What we saw was Stoke race into an early lead through a Peter Dobing goal and for a period there was only one team in it and it wasn’t West Ham. However, around the half hour mark Trevor Brooking sent a cross high into the Stoke area which left Clyde Best flat on his face. Penalty said referee Morrisey and up stepped Geoff Hurst to blast past Gordon Banks in the Stoke goal. It got better for West Ham after 62 minutes when Best rifled in a stunning winner from a Harry Redknapp cross. It ended 2-1 to West Ham on the night and we went hoping confident that another Wembley trip was on the cards.

Ferguson, McDowell, Lampard, Bonds, Taylor, Moore, Redknapp, Best, Hurst, Brooking, Robson

Birthdays this week:

5 December  Danny Williamson (43)
8 December  David Cross (66)
8 December  Geoff Hurst (75)
9 December  Ludek Miklosko (55)

It is not often that you score 4 goals away from home but still end up losing but that was the case in the Second Division game against Blackburn Rover on 25 November 1989 where goals from Dicks, Brady, Slater and Ward could not prevent the Hammers suffering a 5-4 defeat.  In the Hammer’s lineup that day was Justin Fashanu making one of just two of his starts in the claret and blue as he attempted to resurrect his career.

From a long list of games played in the week 21 – 27 November there were not too many stand out games and so it is the high scoring ones that catch the eye.

Starting with the most painful memory first it is a year ago tomorrow that Harry Kane scored two as West Ham slid to a humbling 4-1 defeat at White Hart Lane (at least the manner and margin of defeat were different this time even if the pain is the same).  It was the same score when Glenn Roeder took his doomed eleven to Villa Park in November 2002 to reclaim bottom spot in the league.

High scoring successes include 5-2 against Coventry in 1981 (Stewart, Martin (2), Neighbour and Brooking); 5-3 against Oxford in 1992 (Breacker, Dicks (2), Morley and C Allen); and 4-3 against Sheffield Wednesday in 1999 (Foe, Wanchope, Di Canio and Lampard).   Extended highlights of the last of these matches, an incident filled encounter in what was Wednesday’s last season in the top flight to date, can be seen below and includes Marc-Vivien Foe’s solitary league goal for the Hammers.

In European competition, West Ham opened their defence of the ECWC on 24 November 1965 with a routine 4-0 first leg victory over Olympiakos of Greece with goals from Brabrook, Byrne and Hurst (2).    The return leg the following week ended all square at 2-2 as the Hammers progressed to a third round tie with FC Magdeburg.

A rare, although not high scoring, phenomenon was victory at Old Trafford on 27 November 1976; the match which had a West Ham debut for Anton Otulakowski saw the Hammers win by 2 goals to nil (Jennings and Brooking).  What chance a repeat exactly 40 years later?

Finally a return to a painful derby defeat this time against arch-villains Millwall in 2004 when Danny Dichio grabbed the only goal of the game against 10 man West Ham.  In a typical fiery encounter at the New Den Marlon Harewood was sent off for a second bookable offence just after the hour with the score at 0-0.  It was a largely uninspiring Hammer’s team at the time and this game featured the one and only Mauricio Taricco appearance; a career which lasted just 27 minutes before a torn hamstring led to his retirement from professional football.  Strange to think now that the season eventually ended with promotion through the Play-Offs; it was a classic scraping through the back door in a campaign where we were never a threat for automatic promotion.

Manager Alan Pardew comments on the Millwall match make interesting reading “I am not so stupid not to realise that (the fans) were unhappy with my substitution (taking Luke Chadwick off when Harewood was sent off).  But I will always be strong enough to make the decision that I think is right.  Our fans want promotion at all costs. There is not much room for sympathy: we are desperately trying to get up, we have had a tough week and we are still missing some key players.”

So missing players and poor substitutions are nothing new.  Bywater, Taricco (A Ferdinand ), Chris Powell, Darren Powell, Repka, Reo-Coker, Lomas, Fletcher, Etherington, Chadwick (Zamora), Harewood 

Notable birthdays during this week:

22 November  Frank McAvennie (57)
24 November  Dean Ashton (33)
25 November  Ted Hufton (d. 1967)
26 November  Junior Stanislas (27)
27 November  Freddie Sears (27)

Defeats to the teams you love to hate feature strongly in this week’s ‘Week in Hammer’s History’.  We start with a routine 2-1 reverse at White Hart Lane in November 1982 in a match where we started the day in 2^nd place sensing that victory could have put us top of the pile with 11 games played.  Sadly that didn’t happen and, as with most of our opportunities to hit top spot, lines were fluffed and a collective freeze ensured that we would not reach the same dizzy heights again that season.

The West Ham team from the early 1980’s is one of my all-time favourites.  A side with Brooking and Devonshire at the top of their powers brought a famous FA Cup win followed by the runaway promotion winning campaign of 1980/81.  The league was won with a record points total and a meagre  4 defeats is an all-time West Ham record.  However, two of the four losses were at the hands of the same team – Luton Town.  Defeat in the first home game of the season was followed up by another in November 1980 to put an end to a 14 match unbeaten run and inflict a first away defeat of the campaign.  The final score 3-2 with two Trevor Brooking goals unable to save the day.

Some years later in November 1988 we were back at Kenilworth Road which now sported a new plastic pitch.  This was a surface that we have never appeared to be comfortable with and a halfhearted performance resulted in a painful 4-1 drubbing.  See for yourself in the clip below.

In November 1992, with the new Premier League underway, West Ham travelled south of the river to face Millwall in what would be their last visit to The Den.  The game was featured on ITV’s London Match and ended in a 2-1 victory for the hosts; Malcolm Allen and Phil Barber scoring for Millwall with Mark Robson replying for the Hammers.  If you are so inclined you can find the whole of this game on Youtube.

Raising the mood a little there have been the usual smattering of high scoring affairs during this week including a 4-0 demolition of Leicester City in 1968 (Peters, Dear (2), OG), a 5-0 League Cup massacre against the much loathed Blades in 1971 (Best (2), Robson (3)) and a 5-2 thrashing of Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1974 (Lampard, Bonds, Jennings, Gould, Brooking).  The win against Sheffield United (see below – the game was played on 17 November 1971) set up the epic League Cup semi-final quadrilogy against Stoke City either side of the new year.

Finally, we end with an 8 goal thriller against Charlton at The Valley in 2001.  Paul Kitson making his first start for almost 2 years opened the scoring after 3 minutes (his first West Ham goal for almost 3 years).  Defensive errors by Dailly and Repka saw Charlton take the lead before Kitson scored again to make it all square at half time.  Charlton regained the lead early in the second half, Scott Parker the provider for Jonatan Johansson, before West Ham equalised again as Kitson prodded home to complete an unlikely hat-trick.  Jermaine Defoe, on as a substitute for Kitson, fired the Hammers ahead before Johansson’s injury time equaliser evened things up for a final time.

Hislop, Schemmel, Minto (Lomas), Dailly, Repka, Foxe, Sinclair, Carrick, Kitson (Defoe), Di Canio, Hutchison (J Cole)  

This week’s birthdays:

14 November:  Alan Taylor (63)
15 November: Jimmy Neighbour (d. 2009)
15 November: Keith Robson (63)
17 November: Titi Camara (43 – 63)
18 November: Jimmy Quinn (57)
19 November: Tony Gale (57)

This week in history twice brought us 4-1 victories against a Manchester City side that were, as yet, unable to reap the benefit of Arab millions. The first was back in 1959 and then more recently in 2000 in what turned out to be Rio Ferdinand’s last home game as a West Ham player before his transfer to Leeds United.

There have been four 3-3 draws during this week of which two were home games against West Bromwich Albion in 1961 and 1977; the others being away at Arsenal in 1963 and at home to Nottingham Forest in 1988. Adding to the goal rush there were three games that ended 4-3 and although only one of these ended in the Hammer’s favour it was a satisfying away victory at White Hart Lane in 1966 where Jimmy Greaves missed a penalty for the hosts. The two 3-4 reverses were at home to Leeds (2002) in the Roeder relegation season and also at home to West Brom the following season which included one of want away Jermaine Defoe’s three pre Christmas red cards. The first half of the Leeds game was maybe one of the worst 45 minute performances I have ever seen;  featuring a level of incompetence from Repka and Dailly that would be difficult to match it ended with the Hammers 1-4 in arrears. Unfortunately a spirited (but ultimately unsuccessful) second half comeback inspired by Di Canio probably saved Roeder from loosing his job there and then.

Hard to imagine that just three games against West Bromwich Albion had yielded a total of 19 goals and if you want more you could throw in a 5-2 win in the 1988 Full Member’s Cup for good measure.

A rare away romp in 2007 saw West Ham thrash hapless Derby County who would go on to record just one win and 11 points all season. The Hammer’s goals coming from Bowyer (2), Erherington, Solano and an OG.

Finally an encounter that is often up there with the greatest ever games played at Upton Park; the League Cup clash with Don Revie’s title chasing dirty Leeds in 1966. It was a great week for the Hammers which started with a 6-1 home victory against Fulham and would end with the win described above at Tottenham a week later. Sandwiched in between on a misty Monday night in east London was the League Cup 4th round tie.

Back then it wasn’t practice to rest players for League Cup games and although Leeds were missing Sprake and Lorimer through injury they fielded a strong side including the usual uncompromising suspects of Charlton, Hunter, Bremner and Reaney.

The West Ham performance that night was described at the time as “irresistible”, “breathtaking”, “awesome” and having the “gloss of greatness”.

The Hammers were a goal up within two minutes when Byrne set up John Sissons to curl his shot into the corner of the goal. More good work by Byrne on the half hour released Brabrook whose cross was side footed home by Sissons for 2-0 before the same player completed a first-half hatrick five minutes later. Hurst added a fourth just before half time to make it 4-0 at the interval. A four goal advantage at half time is not necessarily a guarantee of victory for West Ham but in the second half Byrne set up two more goals for Hurst while in between Peters scored another. The final score was West Ham 7 Leeds United 0. Hatricks for Sissons and Hurst and a mesmerising individual performance by Budgie Byrne as he taunted and destroyed the Leeds defence.

Standen, Bovington, J Charles, Peters, Brown, Moore, Brabrook, Boyce, Byrne, Hurst, Sissons.

This week’s birthdays:

8 November   Peter Brabrook (79)
8 November   Joe Cole (35)
8 November   Alan Curbishley (59)
8 November   Martin Peters (73)
10 November Vic Watson (d 1988)
11 November  Pop Robson (71)
12 November  Carlton Cole (33)