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

6 FOOT 2 fanzine issue 2

The next issue of 6 FOOT 2 fanzine is out now, free to read with no subscription needed,
packed with great articles covering,
 Percy best betting tips, Seans pub crawl around Stratford.
Feature writers and a look back at West Ham’s previous homes as we look forward to our first ever league game.

Trevor Brooking is our page 3 star, we look back at our previous games against Bournemouth, The opening game at the London Stadium against Domzale and the Juventus game as well, 

So check out the Bournemouth edition of 6 Foot 2 magazine 

ISSUE 1 ALSO AVAILABLE HERE

Millwall 1930 FA Cup 5th Round

In Febuary 1930 West Ham faced local Rivals Millwall in

the F.A Cup 5th round, meeting for the first time sine they had left the Southern League in 1919 and joined the football league.
To get to this round the Hammers had defeated Notts County in the 3rd round 4-0 then Leeds 4-1 with both games being played at the Boleyn to set up the first meeting in 15 years between the old enemy.
The Hammers attack was led by all time leading goalscorer Vic Watson, who was in the midst of his greatest season. in the 44 games he played that season Watson scored 50 goals. 42 of those came in the league and 8 in just 4 FA Cup games.
The Hammers team on the day were as follows

Ted Hufton

Alfred Earl

Charlie Cox

Jim Collins

Jim Barrett

Albert Caldwell

Tommy Yews

Stanley Earl

Vic Watson

    Viv Gibbons

   Jimmy Ruffell

Gibbons Yews and Watson

The game was over as a contest before half time as first Gibbons, then Watson scoring two in between a goal scored by Tommy Yews set alight the 26,000 crowd the had brave the weather. Newspaper report from the day claimed that the attendance may have been higher if the West Ham board hadn't seen fit to double the gate entrance fee for this game leaving 8,000 less fans at the game that had seen the 4-1 victory over Leeds in the previous Round.

Millwall's goal was scored in the second half after a mistake by West Ham keeper Ted Hufton, though it was to be no more than a consolation as West Ham marched into the sixth round. 

The fans probably at that time dreamed of a return to Wembley but West Ham's cup bubble was burst as Arsenal was pulled out the bag to face the hammers in the next round.

The Gunners would dispose of west Ham at The Boleyn 3-0, in their team that day was a familiar cup foe in David Jack, now of Arsenal but back in 1923 Captain of Bolton Wanderers and scorer of the first Ever Goal to be scored at Wembley in the famous final of that year, one which the Hammers lost 2-0.

But in 1930 we are lucky enough to witness the goals as Movitone news cameras were on hand to film the game in what is the first ever filmed meeting between West Ham and Millwall.

 

   

 

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

Spirit of 1980 .The Road To Wembley

In 1980 West Ham possibly achieved their greatest triumph in defeating the holders Arsenal to win the FA Cup and becoming the last team from outside the top flight to achieve this feat.

Seven games against five teams playing in three cities and beating three teams from the division above all to reach the final of the oldest cup competition, the film over 30 minutes documents that journey using pictures, news reports and Match of the day and Big match footage to tell the story of how the club reached the final at Wembley in May, also featuring the No1 songs at the time each game was played.  

Watch as the Hammers embark on a campaign that would make hero's into Club legends and see the interviews with some of the stars and the manager that made it happen 

From Stewarts penalty,  Devonshire's Run to Dreaming of a Frank Lampard this is 

The Spirit of 1980

To watch on You Tube click here

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.

Jimmy Greaves, East End Hero

As this week the hammers face old rivals spurs for the last time at the Boleyn and with the sad news this week of of his health problems its perhaps fitting that we look at Jimmy Greaves, a Hero to some, but a legend of the English game.
Born in 1940 within earshot of the Boleyn Ground, Hitlers blitz put paid to him being brought up in Manor Park where he was born, instead after his parents house was flattened just 6 weeks after Jimmys Febuary birthday and they were moved out to Dagenham, an area that would prove to be a rich training ground for football in the 60's. 
While being East london of birth it seems though West Ham was not his club of choice as a kid, infant Jimmy says while he did visit Upton Park at times, he preferred the local non-league scene of the time which in the 50's could attract crowds numbering in the thousands for big local games. 
Jimmy was also a school boy star at football, playing for both London, and Essex School boys and soon the scouts of London's top clubs would be looking to sign him, though both spurs and the hammers showed an interest it was Chelsea who won his signature signing for them in 1955, the same year the Blues, with future hammers manager Ron Greenwood, would win the first division championship. 
Jim broke into their team as a 17 year old in 1957 making his debut against Spurs, scoring in a 1-1, he managed an amazing 124 goals in 157 games before going AC Milan in 1961. Milan was short lived but 9 goals in 12 games showed his quality, but homesick and with stories of him escaping out of windows in Hotels to try get away, Spurs soon came in for him and ended his misery in Italy. 
At Tottenham is safe to say the word Legend is not over doing it, 220 goals in just over 300 league games in 9 years in North London, before he finally came back home, to the East End, to join his best mate Bobby Moore at West Ham in the March of 1970.
His first game for the Hammers came away at 

Manchester City and as he had done for every club /team he had debuted for Jim scored on his debut, in fact netting twice in a 5-1 victory against the blue half of Manchester. 
greaves played 6 games at the end of the 69/70 season scoring 4 goals in total, so it seems he had lost none of his goal scoring exploits. 
The first game of season 70/71 would see his first return to White Hart Lane since his departure in the March, and true to form he delivered a goal for the Hammers in a 2-2 draw.
The goals were now getting harder for him though, only 2 in October and again only 2 in December showed a poor tally for the formerly prolific goalscorer. What was not known to the outside world was Jim was descending into Alcoholism. 
In the January of 1971 West Ham faced Blackpool away in a F.A Cup game, the game was in doubt

and after Greaves and Booby Moore had a chance meeting with BBC camera men in the hotel they were informed the pitch was so frozen they doubted the game would be played, and so Greaves and Moore, together with Brian Dear and the youngster Clyde Best they decamped to Boxer Brian London's night club on the Blackpool sea front. How much they drank is disputed, Best was tee total so only had orange Juice, but the other three still did take in Alcohol, Three hours they spent in the club before retreating back to the Hotel.
In the morning the pitch was declared fit to play and with the four all playing West Ham were outplayed, out fought and out of the cup 4-0. To put the result into context, Blackpool had just been promoted into the top division but were rock bottom and had just sacked their manager who would not save them from the impending relegation. 
For one West Ham fan though who made the journey the defeat was bitter, especially as he had seen the four players and the physio Rob Jenkins in the nightclub, that fan confronted Ron Greenwood on the Monday after at the Boleyn and next day the press had their teeth into the story. Greenwood wanted to sack all 5, the board though bulked at that fault, Dear though would go while the rest received suspensions. Bobby Moore would later comment years later of his treatment   "I had claret-and-blue blood, but I could never forgive the club for the way they treated me"

After a month out the team, Jimmy returned v Coventry away scoring in a 1-0 win but again his goals were too few and far apart, in fact just 3 more were added to his tally taking his season tally to 9 in 30 games, not anywhere near his usual prolific tallies in previous seasons, and so aged just 31 Jimmy Greaves retired from professional top flight football. 366 top flight goals in just over 500 games leaves him as the country greatest top flight goalscorer, in fact he is Europe's greatest top flight goalscorer with Lionel Messi still 60 goals behind him. He is also England's 4th all time greatest goalscorer with 44 goals though his came in just 57 games
Jimmy Greaves West Ham record stands at 13 goals from 38 games, and his time with us is looked at as disappointing but in comparison Dean Ashton scored 15 in 46 games and is looked at as a hero of the club.
Greaves conquered his alcohol problems and managed to forge a career on the TV for years though sadly last year he suffered a massive stroke and is now wheelchair bound with severe impaired speech. The future for him does not look great and he needs constant care hopefully the English football family will rally round to support him in his hour of need to help England's greatest goalscorer 

Bobby Moore in the USA

May the 14th 1977 As Bobby Moore waved goodbye to his football career, walking off after his last league game for Fulham v Blackburn Rovers, it wasn't to be his final farewell to playing football as the summer before he had spent a season in the burgeoning soccer scene in the United States where he played in Texas for the San Antonio Thunder. 

San Antonio played at the Alamo stadium and Moore appeared 24 times, for the Thunder including another match up against his old friend Pele as they beat the New York Cosmos 1-0, with Bobby setting up the winning goal. 

The season though was not a success as their stats show that they may have won 12 games but they lost 12 as well with no draws, though at that time in the NASL there were no tied game, extra time was played then a shoot off was held to decide any games with level scores.

They finished 4th in the league, with 107 points (don't ask) failing to make the playoffs and with only an average crowd of 4,700, which was only 300 more than the season before the writing was on the wall for the club.

Sadly at the end of the 1976 after just 2 seasons of existence the franchise was moved to Hawaii and renamed Team Hawaii and with it it seems Moore's journey in America.

While with San Antonio though Bobby had 1 more international tournament to appear in, to celebrate the two hundredth year of independence of the U.S of A, a 4 team competition was organised with England Italy Brazil and a North american soccer League representative team called Team America. 

The format was simple, each team played the three others with Some of the best stars of the NASL pulled on the red Jersey and swore allegiance (temporarily) to the cause

and so on May the 31st at Philadelphia's JFK stadium Bobby Moore led his Team America out against his beloved England, who were captained by QPR's Gerry Francis. The mercenaries though were out done by Revies England, wearing a strange Yellow kit for the only time, with England running out 3-1 winners (Keegan 2 T.Francis) and finishing runners up in the tournament to Brazil. Team America lost every game and would never appear again. 

                 

After his summer sojourn in Texas Moore was back at Fulham for what would be his last season yet he was not finished in America and a full year since his last game at Blackburn, and nearly 20 years since his debut for West Ham  he joined Seattle Sounders for the summer of 1978. 

Why Seattle, well probably the fact that his former hammers teamates Bobby Howe and Harry Redknapp were assisting the manager, Jimmy Gabriel. Seattle had reached the championship final the year before losing out to Pele's New York Cosmos and attracted good crowds, over 22,000 regularly, so in 1978 the fans were looking forward to another successful season and possibly so was Moore, but unlike his ever present season at the Thunder in Texas he managed just the 5 games, one of them again against the New York Cosmos with Seattle losing out 2-1.  Strangely for Moore he didn't wear the number 6 shirt he has become so synonymous with but the number 9    

Moore also appeared for the Jimmy Hill owned franchise of Detroit Express in a friendly in Austria alongside his great friend George Best, best scoring in a 2-2 draw.                               

                                 

And so it seems that would be the end of Bobby Moore the footballer but there was one more stop to come,in 1983  joining up with Ex Fulham pal Rodney Marsh at Carolina Lightnin, a minor league team in Charlotte North Carolina, Moore, now 42, was his assistant on the coaching team but one night it seems injuries to the team meant for one last time in a competitive game, Bobby Moore put on his boots, crossed the white line and rolled back the years. in an interview with an american magazine, one opposition player on the night described how he found himself up against a world legend. Glenn Davis was a rookie that summer with the ASL’s Pennsylvania Stoners and recalled his shock at finding Moore in the American Soccer League i

“Carolina had so many injuries they activated Bobby Moore to play that night against us.  Bobby was probably 43 years old and he obviously can’t move.  He’s kicking everything and everybody that he can get close to.  And we’re just going “Oh my God – it’s Bobby Moore.”

I remember we had a 2-0 lead and we absolutely crumbled in the final ten minutes with their fans going nuts.  They had probably about 7,000 or 8,000 fans in this cool little stadium in Charlotte.  I think it was called the Memorial Stadium.  We totally collapsed as a team and lost 3-2.  I remember our owner on the bus back to the hotel and screaming at one of our players.  I think a lot of us were just still in shock that Bobby Moore was playing that night.”

Moore and Marsh Carolina Lightnin

Its quite possible that the above picture is from the last competitive that Bobby Moore played in, Carolina had a poor season in 1983 but with the heyday of soccer is the U.S long over the ASL folded and so ended Moore's time in the states. He returns to England where he takes over at Southend United for 2 seasons. success eluded him there as well and professional football closed its door on him in 1986 when the Shrimpers languishing in the fourth tier of english football let him go.