Last view for the Boleyn Soldiers

Soldiers join the crowd at the Boleyn, its September the second and the country is on tenterhooks preparing for possible war, The Germans had invaded Poland and Britains prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, had issued Hitler a last ultimatum, withdraw or face war.

Around the country though the usual Saturday trip to football continued, and at Upton Park West Ham faced Leicester City in what was a Division 2 league game, it was actually the last Division 2 game played that season as the very next day war was declared and all current football leagues were stopped. 

West Hams last pre war team that day were

Harry Medhurst,

Charlie Bicknell,

Ted Fenton,   

Charlie Walker,

Richard Walker,

Joe Cockroft,

Stan Burton,

Archie, Macaulay,

Cliff Hubbard,

Len Gouldon,

Jackie Wood.

West Ham lost the game, played in front of 13,400 fans, 2-0. Their first defeat after winning the two previous games, away to Plymouth and then home 2-1 against Fulham. 

Football didn’t resume until late October with the league re-organised into a regional competition.
The season would end in glory for the hammers though by winning the War cup at Wembley., defeating Leicester as it happens on the way

Newspaper reports of the game show that West Ham were the dominant team in the game, with England international Len Gouldon performing on the wing

The Final league table before war broke out

DG Christmas Carol

I wrote this for Over Land and Sea Fanzine printed December 2012, a bit of fun with a serious message at christmas. How true it becomes, only time will tell

Was Christmas eve and David Gold stood on the balcony over looking the concourse out onto Green street, when he looked to his right he could see to his child hood home, number 442, so many memories and in the distance he could see the Olympic stadium, where he hoped to move his beloved club no matter what the fans think.
In one moment he could see his past present and future standing there in front of him, it filled him with pride. Pride in where he had came from and what he had achieved. He was alone in his thoughts and had not noticed the shadowy appearance next to him.
DG, “DAD” he cried, recoiling in the fact that his father had been dead for
many years.
GG” Hello David, tis Christmas Eve and i bring you a message, tonight you will be visited by 3 spirits, be sure to listen to all 3 as the future of the club depends upon”. And with that he was gone. 

DG was shocked but looking around and noticing he was alone, shrugged it off as an illusion.
That night sitting alone at home, his mind on other things, he heard the clock strike 11, a great draft blew in through an open window, DG quickly closed it,
feeling a slight shiver he walked over to pour himself a drink, he turned back
into the room, standing there was the first spirit, “Woooahh do you recognise me” 

DG “its, its, Its Eric Parsons, The Rabbit, i remember you, you were my favourite player as a kid” 
EP “well i’m the ghost of Christmas past, and i’m here to take you on a journey” and with that Eric grabbed DG’s arm and picked him
up and together they left his house. Before they knew it they were back in Green st, Dec 26 1949, Standing outside 442 Green St, a young DG was leaving his house, off into the crowd that was walking past the Boleyn House turret and into the Ground. EP “look how happy you are DG look how happy the crowd are” 

DG “yes, i loved this place, such happy times, nothing can
quite beat the sound of Green st on a match
day. A great game game as well Eric, you scored as we beat Swansea 3-0”
EP “yes DG happy days, but still hold on to your memories because when they tear this place down thats all that people will have, another piece of East London tore down in the name of progress”. DG “but it will be for the better Eric” 

EP “time we were off, got to get you back, just hold on to your
memories,thats all you will have”
And with that Eric parsons was gone, and DG was back sitting in his lounge, was it real, had he imagined it, where was that drink he wanted? He went
back to the drinks cabinet
“i wouldnt drink that if i was you Dave” DG jumped back in shock “John Bond
is that you”
JB “ yup, not been gone long so im a bit new to this spooking lark, but ive been nominated as the Ghost of Christmas present, Woooahhh. Wheres the cigars” 

DG “can we get on with it” 

JB “come on then off we go” suddenly they
were back at the lounge at the Boleyn Ground, watching the recent SAB meeting, Karen Brady was speaking to the assembled members, many nodding their heads like the life size caricature dolls they sell in the club shop of Gold & Sullivan. 

DG “she’s got them eating out the palm of her hand, look
at them they are loving it” 

JB “not all though Dg, look in the corner to your
right see, the revolutionaries plotting your downfall. they can see through the rubbish Brady is spouting.
Only 54,000 seats, of which 35,00 will be upper tier so they will all be sitting the wrong side of the running track. in theory you can fit every fan that attends games at the Boleyn in the upper tier so all will be behind the running track.
DG “yeah but we will push seats up to the track” JB “thats right you will, BUT you said on match of the day 2 that front row seats of the Boleyn will match the front row seats of the OS” 

DG “yes thats right” 

JB “yeah, but only at the corner flag, because of the arc of the seating the middle will be alot further away and i didnt know that the front row of the seats at the Boleyn were 9 meters away because that is the nearest seat at the OS” 

DG “well they are in the East stand”.
JB “come on Mr Gold time we were leaving, got to get you back for No 3”
and with that they were back in DG’s house.

Relieved to be back DG decided to forgo that drink and retire to bed. He drifted off quite quickly but was soon awoken by a crashing noise. he looked up to see at the end of his bed, a shadowy figure, wild hair and with a cain, 

DG ”who are you”  

BB “Im the Beast of the Boleyn and ive been sent as the spirit of Christmas future, come on shorty your coming with me” and with that the beast dragged Dg off by his ankles. 

Next he knew they were getting of a tube train at West Ham station.
DG “what we doing here” 

BB “Got to walk from here up the Greenway to the
OS, wont let us get off at Stratford, apparently because of the recent aggro when Millwall turned up Westfield have stopped the football fans from entering the stadium that way, now we walk in all weather, 30 minutes up to the stadium” 

DG “what Millwall are in the premier League”
BB “i thought you was mad not stupid, it was a cup game”.
as they trudged through the rain the stadium appeared, a sign lit up the view,
Welcome To the VISA Stadium, the home of WEST-FIELD OLYMPIC FC.
DG “whats with that sign” BB “well when you and Sully sold the club after you moved into the OS it was bought by that aussie who owned next door, the WestField shopping centre.
He didn’t like the name anymore so changed it, dropped the Ham changed it to Field”
DG “what about the Olympic bit though” BB “ that was Karen Brady’s idea, dont you remember her Sun Column when you and sully bought the club”.
As the pair entered the stadium, 1/2 empty in appearance, Gold turned to the
Beast, “where are the fans then” 

BB “well there are 35,000 in here the same
as you used to get at the Boleyn, but once the initial goodwill disappeared, the £10 tickets never materialised and the tourists stopped coming because the
view is better else where and the part timers went back to their shopping and watching on the TV, all that were left were loyal regulars, those that had stuck
by the club through thick and thin, of course many have walked away in disgust at the way you and the others treated them, but then you couldn’t deliver on your promises, no champions league football, no top 4 finishes, no challenging for the best players in the world, no safe standing area as you couldn’t incorporate that when the Athletics was using the stadium. Just the same old West Ham but in more square footage. That is your legacy Mr Gold, for once they lost the ground it was easy to strip away the old ways in pursuit
of the modern money, The Boleyn was part of the fabric of the club, once torn though, might as well change the lot”
DG “this is not what i had planned”
BB “No Mr Gold, it wasn’t but then you dont control the future, just the here
and now.... Time to go Mr Gold”

David Gold awoke in his Bed on Christmas Day, had he dreamed it, was it just
a bad dream or is it the future of the club?
Of course we all hope the above is purely fictional, it came to me while listening to DG’s speech at the SAB meeting, all that was missing was Marleys Ghost. No one knows what the future will bring, but as said above The Boleyn is part of the fabric of the club, once torn away it leaves a frayed edge that could possibly unravel to nothing.

Merry Christmas everyone

Barnes stings the Hornets

Just 4 months after our FA Cup win the Hammers set about regaining their top flight status, after a slow start to the season, No wins in first three games, the team were on the up after winning 3 out of their next 3 to leave them sitting fourth in the table, with a European adventure to boot, Lyalls legends were up and running.
The first european game is remembered for all the wrong reasons as crowd trouble marred the night but it was that game that saw a young 17 year old Youth star make his first appearance for the club, coming on as a substitute for Nicky Morgan Bobby Barnes got his first taste of the big time.
Bob didn't have long to wait for his second appearance though as just 3 days later on the 20th September 1980 he was handed a starting place wearing the No7 shirt again replacing Morgan from the Wednesday night defeat in Madrid.

West Ham Team

Phil Parkes

Ray Stewart

Frank Lampard Snr

Billy Bonds

Alvin Martin

Alan Devonshire

Bobby Barnes

Paul Goddard

David Cross

Trevor Brooking

Geoff Pike

This was only our 3rd ever Football league meeting with the Hornets and we had yet to win the previous two but this game was to be a goal fest.
Watford took the lead in the first half with a goal created by Luther Blissett and scored by Malcolm Poskett and it took until the second half for the Hammers to come back into it with a David Cross goal after a great cross by Lampard.
Stung by that goal, Watford hit back with a goal from their own teenage player, Kenny Jacket, to put West Ham back behind in the game. This though was where Barnes came into the game and joined the list of Hammers to score on their full debuts, as the video show below he picks the ball up just inside the Hornets half, slips the ball past a watford midfielder to run on goal and as two defenders close he shoots past their keeper to equalise.
The game is won by Brooking with a fantastic header which in 1980 wasn't as rare as many believe.
3-2 to West Ham and they move up to second spot in the table, top spot would be achieved on 11th of November and from that day until the end of the season they never dropped down a place again, winning the league with a (2 point a win) record of 66 points, 13 clear of second placed Notts county.
That season West Ham only lost 1 home game, and that was the first against Luton in the August, they finished with 21 home games played, 1 loss, 1 draw with Oldham and 19 wins of which though Bobby Barnes would start just the one game, with 5 other sub appearances which considering his start is perhaps surprising but would be indicative of his career at West Ham. In the 5 years he spent around the first team he would make just 38 starts, scoring 6 goals before leaving to join Aldershot but he will mainly be remembered for his goalscoring start to his hammers career.

The video has all 5 goals with commentary from Brian Moore from the Big Match 

1980-81

Dear Shoots the Foxes

Brian Dear

Christmas 1967 and West Ham face Leicester in two games over the festive period that were packed with goals, mainly by 1 player but also we see perhaps the start of a legendary career as a young academy graduate score for the first time.
That season the hammers had a indifferent start to the season before slumping down to the lower reaches of the table hanging around the bottom three for a period in November and into December but in the last game before christmas with goals by Billy Bonds and Brian Dear, West Ham managed to defeat rivals Spurs 2-1 at the Boleyn to start a run of 6 wins in 7 games with the only defeat in that time away to Manchester United.

GAME 1

Boxing Day 1967

The Beatles were No 1 with Hello, Goodbye as the hammers welcomed Leicester to the Boleyn to witness the first of the two games with the team that day
Bobby Ferguson, Billy Bonds, Frank Lampard, Martin Peters, John Cushly, Bobby Moore, Brian Dear, Ronnie Boyce, Trevor Brooking, Geoff Hurst and John Sissons
The 26,000 in attendance that day were treated to to great spectacle as Dear grabbed himself a hat-trick, his second of the season after he grabbed 5 V West Brom earlier in the season, the other Hammers goal was grabbed by 19 year old Trevor Brooking, scoring his first ever goal for the club in his first season as a first team player in only his 8th start for the club.

As was the tradition back then it wouldn't be long till the clubs met again in the league, in fact it was just 4 days

Game 2 

Dec 30 1967

The same two teams met at Filbert St but this time the Match of the Day cameras were on hand to record the game, which was played in poring rain.
In typical West Ham fashion the good start in the first half, Brooking scoring again with his second goal for the club, was undone by two Leicester goals leaving the Hammers training 2-1 at half time.
In the second half that all changed as a header from the man of the moment Brian Dear put the teams level, then next the foxes young keeper, a certain Peter Shilton 29 years before he joined the hammers, would be left embarrassed as the ball squirms through him into the goal direct from a John Sissons corner.
Brian Dear completed the victory with his second of the game and fifth against Leicester in 4 days and those two victories pushed the hammers up the table away from the relegation places, a trend that continued in the second half of the season as West Ham managed to finish in a respectable 12th place.

The video below is the goals from the second game with David Coleman providing the commentary.

Lights Out Lampard

3rd of November 1997, West Ham welcomed Crystal Palace to the Boleyn Ground for a Monday night game live on TV, it could be described as a non decrepit game but one that would later be be found to be part of an international betting scam, featuring corrupt security guards Chinese triads and Malaysian  betting fixers. Yet those us of us in the ground that night would never have thought what happened was nothing but co-incidence. Months later it would look to be part of a sinister plot to fix football matches in this country to allow asian gangs to collect their winnings as in asia they pay out on abandoned games as long as the second half has started unlike here that just void all bets.
West Ham had made a topsy turvey start to the season, winning 3 out of their first 5 games, before losing 5 out of the next 7 games, but with only the one defeat happening at the Boleyn, including victories over Spurs and Liverpool,the home fans had enjoyed the season so far.
Confidence was high with palace struggling in the table, surely this would be an another home win, Palace though had other ideas going into a first half two goal lead thats to a Neil Shipperly brace.

Whatever Harry said at Half Time though seemed to have done the trick, first Hartson scored what should of been his 13th goal of a so far profitable season, and then Frankie Lampard 

scores to equalise just 15 minutes into the second Half, but as can be seen in the video above, within seconds the floodlights go out on the game, which at the time seemed to just add to the excitement of the goal and 30 minutes later, around the time the game should have finished, the game was abandoned.
It would take 2 years before the truth would come out in a trial at the Middlesex Guildhall Courts of those suspected.
It seems that using a wireless trigger, the gang could disable the floodlights and stop them from working, to do this though they had to have had someone on the inside to assist in them placing a trigger across the floodlights electrics.

This is known as a year later the betting gang had tried again to fix another game, this time at Charlton, but having recruited the Addicks Head of security to the cause, the guard he had asked to help as well instead phoned the Police, and the gang + Charlton's security man were arrested in the act of planting the trigger. At The trial it was revealed this game and another at Selhurst park featuring Arsenal and Wimbledon that again had floodlight failure with the game tied in the second half.
The Hammers and Palace, unaware of what had caused the lights to go out met again just 1 month later to replay the abandoned game, again live on Sky though this time West Ham were not going to be caught cold.
A great exhibition of control in the box from Eval Berkovic sets up John Hartson for the first, who else but shipperley would equalise, but before the half was out Berkovic would score as the ball came off the bar after a Hartson header. Two more goals in the second half from David Unsworth and Steve Lomas would see us to the victory and push us back into the top 10 after 4 weeks just on the edge of it.

While West Ham would end the season in 8th spot with 56 points, second highest total in the Premier league for the club, and with a -1 goal difference, currently our best ever in the Premier league, Palace would finish rock bottom and go back to the Championship only 12 moths after promotion.
What of the betting syndicate, well the Police never found any direct evidence that they were the cause of the floodlight failure at The Boleyn but they had established a link between them and an employee of the club who was arrested but with a lack of evidence was released without charge.
The 2 Malaysians and Charlton's Security advisor were not so lucky, being jailed for between 18 months and 4 years.

Boleyn Gates

In 1956 the club were looking to buy the land in front of the West Stand, the entrance to the stand was down a narrow strip of land besides the Church, the land where the current entrance stands was part of the Boleyn Castle estate, which in the mid 50s was in a dilapidated state and eventually was demolished in 1955. West Ham already had use of the grounds and had sub-leased the building to the Boleyn castle sports and social club.

After being owned by various family in the late 18th century into the early 19th century the Catholic church purchased the 30 acre property to open a reformatory school in 1869. The school held upto 200 boys and was run by the Brothers of the order of the Mercy and was known as the St Edwards reformatory. The school moved to new premises in Walthamstow in 1906 and the building was used until 1912 as a Maternity hospital. That close in 1912 where upon the club leased the land off the catholic church.

 The picture shows the ground in 1948 with the entrance being where the current players car park is situated, and with the Green Street House and castle not being used by the church the club at last managed to the free hold to the land helped in a way by the selling of one of their star players at the time, Harry Hooper.
Harry joined the club aged 16 but was not born in the local area, he arrived thanks to his father being appointed the year before a trainer.
His dad Harry snr was from Burnley but played most of his career for Sheffield United, where he captained them in the 1936 FA Cup final v Arsenal, sadly for Harry Snr they lost 1-0. With the war interrupting football Harry left Sheffield for a short stint at Hartlepool before retiring in

Harry Snr at Wembley

 1949 to join West Hams training staff at a time when the management baton was being passed from Charlie Paynter to Ted Fenton.
Harry junior joined the ground staff soon after and in 1951 still only 17 made his debut against Barnsley in a 4-2 victory. A fast paced winger Harry didn't establish himself into the first team until 1953, but in his 6 seasons at the club  he still managed 136 games scoring 47 goals which for a winger was a good return.
so good that it persuaded Wolves manager Stan Culls to part with £25,000, a club record fee received at the time by the Hammers.
Wolves in the 1950s were different to the club of nowadays, led on the field by the Country's captain Billy Wright, they had won the First Division title in 1954.

The Transfer fee though was used by the West Hams board to purchase the free hold of the land in front of the Main West Stand and with that the gates were erected in their current position. Strangely Hoopers stay at Wolverhampton was short lived, though he scored 19 goals in 39 games manager Stan Culls it seems was not really impressed with him, and he was sold to Birmingham City for a £5,000 loss just 1 season later.
Cullis claimed that he signed Hooper in front of Tottenham Hotspur after watching him for sometime, His reason for selling him was that Hooper didn't fit in with the Wolves style of play.
The gates, now renamed after former manager John Lyall, though stood at the new entrance for 57 years until 3 of them were removed to be rehoused in the clubs new shop next to the Olympic Stadium where they will stand against a wall, though if you look at the look at the top picture from 1948 a set of gates can be seen at the entrance on Green street. The video below is from further back records the visit of the then Prince of Wales visiting the ground, gates can be clearly seen at the top as he enters the concourse so it seems the


gates go back even further than thought
possibly to when the Main west Stand was built in 1925.
Whether theses are the same gates or indeed new gates that were purchased with the money raised from Harry Hooper im yet to discover but with some of the gates removal and relocation to the clubs new retail shop by the Olympic Stadium it starts the removal of nearly 100 years of gates guarding the entrance to the Green St entrance

Lyall Gates in the club shop

FA Cup revisited. 1911 against United

In 1911 West ham United, then of the southern league, faced Manchester United in the third round of the FA Cup. In the two previous round The Hammers had defeated other league clubs, Nottingham Forest and preston, but United, as in these days, were a big draw as evident by the sellout crowd at the Boleyn of 27,000. The crowd mainly Hammers fans did include a fair size cheering for the Lancastrians as many from the north had ventured south looking for work in the previous years and used this to good use to see their home town team live.
This was the reds first ever visit to the Boleyn and they were to leave empty handed in the first ever cup upset at the hammers ground.

The video, the oldest known film of West Ham at The Boleyn Ground, shows the two teams running out of the original tunnel at the Boleyn ground, located in etc south west corner of the ground, while some websites have the hammers in their claret and blue kit, i believe West Ham to be wearing the all white kit, running out first.
The reason for my believing this is that at that time the hammers had a centre half called Tommy Randall, who was known by his bald head, also the clubs trainer Tom Robinson can be seen following out the team in white then standing facing the camera, The favourites Manchester then run out in the darker kit.
The action is filmed from a stationary camera situated in the North West corner looking over towards a packed Chicken Run stand and though it captures the Manchester team celebrating what seems to be a goal, it was West Ham who would run out winners. Wapping Born Danny Shea put West Ham one up early on, only for United to equalise after 22 minutes thanks to Sandy Turnbull, but with just 2 minutes left of the 90 Tommy Caldwell put the hammers through to the next round.

Danny Shea

To put in context how big an upset this was, prior to this season West ham had yet to defeat a top flight team in the FA cup and Manchester United at the time of the game were top of the First Division and would go on to win the title two months later.

The Hammers team that day was

1: George Kitchen, 
2:James Rottweil, 
3:Bob Fairman, 
4:Robert Whiteman, 
5:Frank Piercy, 
6:Tom Randall, 
7:Herbert Ashton, 
8:Danny Shea, 
9:George Webb, 
10:George Butcher, 
11:Tommy Caldwell

FA Cup Re-visited 1986 Man United away 9/3/1986

As West Ham prepare to meet Man United in the FA Cup this coming Sunday we look back at another great cup victory by the hammers away at Old Trafford.

The winter of 1986 came late and hard, Febuary of 1986 started with West Ham defeating Manchester United in the league then they had Ipswich Town twice in  FA Cup replays that was finally ended with Tony Cottee's goal in extra time on a snow covered Portman Road pitch on the 6th of that month, and that game would be the last played in Febuary by the Hammers in fact in-between the 4th of Febuary and the 12 of March we only played FA Cup games, 5 in total.

The first game of the fifth round at The Boleyn

ended in a 1-1 draw,  Frankie Mac scoring in the first half after good work from Devonshire and then a cross by Cottee across the goal mouth for Frank to put the hammers 1 up.
With around 15 minutes to go in the second half United finally got their equaliser with  Frank Stapleton effort.
The Hammers then laid siege to the Manchester goal but Chris Turner in the Red army's goal kept out notable efforts by McAvennie and Alvin Martin, and Devonshire after a trademark run into the area fired just wide of the post.
And so it was to Old Trafford six days later that the tie resumed, this time in front on the nation as ITV's big match were on hand to show the game live, United were the reigning FA Cup holders after defeating Everton 1-0 the previous May and after one of the best ever starts to a league season, 10 straight wins, they had started to slip down the league, in contrast the hammers had started slowly but though sitting in fifth spot and 10 points off the top, due to weather and cup ties were 5 games behind Liverpool who were holding the top spot.
West Ham's team for the day was Parkes in goal, a back 4 of Stewart, Parris, Gale and Martin. Devonshire Ward Dickens and Geoff Pike held the middle with McAvennie & Cottee up front.

Early exchanges in the game were even, Parkes saving early doors with Mark Hughes lurking, but then McAvennie drove wide after a good run.
Parkes then saved at the feet of Mark Hughes when he looked easier to score but the ball stuck under his foot allowing Parkes to gather.
In the 19th minute West Ham won a corner on the United left, mark ward crossed to the edge of the area where Geoff pike was standing unmarked, he powered his header past Turner in the goal into the top right hand corner to put the hammers one up with his first goal of the season.
The scoreline remain unchanged upto the end of the half. The Red United came out and carved out a chance early forcing Parkes into a great save down to his right after a strong shot by Mark Hughes, Parkes recovered to collect the follow up shot by Jesper Olson.
Stapleton then headed wide at the back post with Parkes scrambling back across his goal.
West Ham won a free kick halfway in the opposition half, Ray Stewart floated the ball over and as Alvin Martin came running he clashes with Stapleton, falling to the ground and the Referee didn't hesitate to award the hammers a penalty.
Stewart dispatched his fifth penalty of the season and after 50 minutes the Hammers are two up.
With that penalty Manchester's hopes of retaining the trophy disappeared while the Hammers looked forward to a sixth round date 3 days later against Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough.
After facing United 3 times in the FA Cup during the 1980's the two teams would not meet again in that competition again for another 15 years.

First Spurs at the Boleyn

So for the last time the Hammers have played great rivals at the Boleyn Ground, so perhaps now is a good time to look back all the way to 1904 and the first meeting between the two clubs at the Boleyn Ground.
24th September 1904 was the date of only the clubs 3rd league match at their new home and after a 3-0 victory in the opener v Millwall and then a defeat to Queens Park Rangers it was North Londoners turn to visit.

The Hammers team that day is listed as

Mathew Kingsley, Signed from Newcastle and an ex England international, would leave for Q.P.R after just 30 games after being sent off for deliberately kicking an opponent.

Tom Bamlet,  Another from Newcastle though his tally of games for west Ham was just 18 before heading back to his native north east.

Dave Gardner, A Scotsman by birth but another ex Newcastle player in the ranks, this was his first season at the club, he would play 80 games before leaving in 1907

Frank Piercy, Another from the North East but this time Middlesborough, he had only just signed for the club, but he would stay after retirement, mainly coaching the reserves up until his untimely death in 1931. Awarded a testimonial after his death.

Thomas Allison, Born in Edinburgh but began his career with New Brighton on Merseyside, signed for the Hammers from reading in 1903 would stay for 6 years playing 165 games scoring 7 goals.

Jack Flynn,  Scored one of the first goals at the Boleyn in the opening day defeat of Millwall, only stayed the one season scoring 4 goals in 21 games

William McCartney, Signed From Manchester United, another who stayed just the one season missing only 6 games out of the 34 available scoring 3 goals. 

Jack Fletcher, Signed from Queens Park Rangers, another one season wonder playing 24 games scoring 4 goals

John Russell, Possibly the first player to wear the Number 6 shirt for West Ham at the Boleyn, another player to stay just the one season playing 17 games in all.

Charles Simmons, signed from West Brom, played all 34 games in the league scoring 8 goals, 

Billy Bridgeman, A local lad from Bow, Scored a hat-trick in the Boleyn curtain raiser game, in a friendly, and then followed it up by scoring twice, including the very first in a competitive game at the Boleyn, against Millwall in the 3-0 opening victory. A Centre Forward he would leave after 3 years for Chelsea, not before scoring 20 goals in 74 games. 

The Game itself seems to have been a tight affair spoilt possibly by the weather, the match reports give better detail of the game 

As described above the attendance was an improvement of what they were achieving at the Memorial Grounds and officially in club historical records the attendance is set at 16,000 but the reports from the day show 20,000 being at the game, which as evident below was the highest in their league for that day.

Finally the league table after the game was as follows

so after 3 games at the Boleyn they had managed a win a draw and a loss, possibly setting the tone for the next 112 years.

Charlie Paynter

Standing in the gym of the old West Stand at the Boleyn ground, Uncle Charlie as he was known lovingly by the players passes on his years of experience to the first team, including Vic Watson at the front in the middle and Jackie Morton front far left. Charlie possibly can lay claim to being the longest serving members ever of the coaching staff in the clubs history, he joined West Ham in 1901 just a year after we were formed and finally retired in 1950 after holding the positions of trainer, coach, and manager.

Born in Swindon on 28 July 1879 his father word as a ironworker for the great western railway, and it was his trade that brought Charles Snr and his family to West Ham around 1882 to work in the railway industry around the borough. They lived in Blanche street of Hermit Road just a stones throw away from the Thames Ironworks original playing field, in 1901 he lists his occupation as dock labourer though it has been said he worked as an electricians mate as well. It was in 1901 he joins the staff of west ham helping out Tom Robinson the trainer and eventually replacing him after his retirement 10 years later, and there he stayed for another 21 years until after Syd Kings suspension in 1932 and then his sacking in 1933 Charlie finally became manager of the first team. the move I imagined would of been welcomed by the players as Charlie was popular with them. Jimmy Ruffell in an interview with the author Brian Belton in 1973 declared that it was Charlie who took the team day to day and it was he who took them to Wembley in 1923 for the first Cup Final to be played there.

The whole period of Charlie's tenure as manager was spent in the second division and in his first season nearly ended in relegation to the third tier, but in the following seasons he steadied the ship while playing some attacking football with some of the greatest players to play for the club. Vic Watson, Len Gouldon who would win 14 caps for England in this period. Jackie Morton would also appear for England and towards the end of his time another long time servant of the club established himself in the team, Ernie Gregory. He also appointed after the war former player Ted Fenton as his assistant and thus continuing the West Ham way of ex players assisting the manager until they could take over. 

And so in 1950 it was time for him to retire, aged 71, and in gratitude of his service he was granted a testimonial which was against Arsenal at the Boleyn. He stayed close to the club acting in ambassadorial roles and Nine years later the club held a 80th birthday for him inviting back many of the players he and coached and managed. He lived out his life living in Oulton Crescent at Barking, he died in 1970 aged 92.

 

Testimonial line up V Arsenal                   With Syd King

Alan Taylor

Alan Taylor is a player that will live on forever in the clubs history though his best remembered exploits were sandwiched into 2 months and none of the games were at The Boleyn.

Signed from Rochdale in November 1974 by John Lyall, who was in his first season as team manager after Ron Greenwood had moved upstairs, his career for the Hammers initially was stop start making 3 sub appearances in the December all from the bench, in fact his first game in the starting 11 came in the F.A cup sixth round at Highbury on the 8th March 1975 and here Alan scores his first two goals for the club to put the hammers into the Semi-final. 

Alan was lucky to even appear for West Ham in that seasons cup competition as just before leaving Rochdale  he suffered an injury that ruled him out of the First round proper of the tournament, leaving Rochdale the week after the game he missed out on being cup tied for his new club.

The first semi-final against Ipswich was a dull 0-0 draw played out at Villa Park and just 4 days later the teams met again at Stamford Bridge where the hammers triumphed 2-1 with again both goals being scored by the Hinckley born striker, sending the us to Wembley for the first time in 10 years and to a meeting with the clubs favourite son Bobby Moore, who was seeing out his career at Fulham. They had defeated Birmingham City the same night 1-0 with a 120th minute winning goal from John Mitchell. 

Taylor would see out the season in the first team but failed to score in the league again as the club geared up for its third wembley F.A cup final appearance and yet on the 3rd of May in the Final Alan Taylor stamped his place into Hammers History with both goals to secure the trophy again after first winning it in 1964. 

To think that just barely 6 months before was turning out in the basement of English football in front of crowds around the 3,000 mark and his season ended in front of 100,000 at wembley and in front of millions around the world watching.

The next season was saw Alan find his scoring boots hitting the ground running scoring 5 goals in the first three games of that season, including both away to Liverpool at Anfield in a 2-2 draw and by the end of the year he had hit 12 in total with another winning goal against Arsenal at the Boleyn in that total. 1975 turned into 1976 and West Ham were on another cup run this time though in Europe as they attempted to win the Cup Winners Cup for the second time but Alans goals were getting fewer and fewer though he did score against the Dutch outfit Den Haag as west Ham turned a 4-2 1st leg deficit into a away goals victory after a 3-1 victory at home to move into the Semi-Final.

Alan missed the semi-final victory and only made the bench for the final v Anderlecht in Belgium but with Frank Lampard sustaining an Injury in the first half Alan came on but the locals ran out winners 4-2 with future Hammer Frankie Van Der Elst being the star player. 

Though ending in disappointment that first full season would be Alan's best for the club scoring a total of 17 goals in all competitions in 47 appearances finishing top scorer at the club for the only time, the next seasons were not the best for West Ham nor Alan injuries and form meant he was in and out of the team evident by the fact that in his first 18months at the club he made 44 league appearances scoring 15 times, but yet in the next 3 years after he managed just another 44 league games scoring just 10 goals. 

On the 5th of May 1979 almost 4 years to the day of his finest game Alan played his last game for the Hammers away to Blackburn Rovers, in the summer he left to join Norwich City but he lasted only a season and left to ply his trade in the American soccer league for Vancouver. Cambridge, Hull, Burnley and Bury were the next short stops on his travels before finally going back to the Canaries in 1988 for just 4 games where he finally retired, though he did play in the local Non League scene in East Anglia. 

In retirement Alan has been a Milkman, ran his own Newsagents and worked as a pallbearer all around the Norwich area but he can also be found around the lounges of the Boleyn ground, wowing the fans with his rags to riches story and if i do say so myself he is also one of the nicest men you could wish to meet.