Читать книгу For The Claret & Blue - Mickey Smith - Страница 8
ОглавлениеWest Ham United Football Club is an East End of London club, whose fans are amongst the most loyal the country has ever seen. Not the biggest club by a long way, but formed with the workers in the East End in 1895.
Previously called the Thames Ironworks, this small club rose up and not many gave it a chance with company like the Woolwich Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, the so-called London big teams. How wrong they were.
The first London team to appear at a Wembley Cup final (known as the White Horse final), when the ground was packed to capacity and then some. The game only went ahead when a lone policeman on ‘Billy the white horse’ managed to keep the overspilling fans off the pitch. Alas, they lost to the mighty Bolton Wanderers – but it was just the start.
The war final was the next time West Ham played in a Cup final – and they won, but it was dismissed by many as a nothing game due to the war.
After that it was a long time till the next appearance, in 1964, when they lifted the FA Cup with the king of English football at the helm – Bobby Moore, who was the England and West Ham captain. With a team of many locally bred footballers they defeated Preston North End 3-2 in a thrilling final. It was the first senior game I went to, and what better way to start following a team.
This was to be one of three in a row. In 1965 the ECWC final was won 2-0 and in 1966 England won the World Cup with two West Ham players scoring the goals and the captain lifting the trophy, something no other England captain has ever done since (a lot of people are pushing for Bobby Moore to be given a posthumous knighthood for this effort).
It was a long time between successes. The year 1975 came around and again there was a trip to Wembley and the Cup was lifted in West Ham’s favour. We played again at Wembley in the pre-season Charity Shield match but lost to the then-in-form Derby County. A trip to Heysel in 1976 saw us lose the ECWC final 4-2.
Another five years was to pass before Wembley beckoned again. This time we were in the Second Division and played the much-fancied Arsenal. Given no chance against the so-called mighty Gunners, we won 1-0 with local product Trevor Brooking scoring a rare goal with his head. The Arsenal and the football media were gutted – how could this happen? Why did it happen? Many people didn’t understand, but came to learn that, no matter what the odds, West Ham fans of the time would never say die. A giant party was on again down the East End. The Arsenal fans were heard to say it did not matter as they were in a European final a few days later (which they lost – and did they moan!).
So what is it that keeps the West Ham fans loyal for so long against all odds? Over the years the board has treated the fans badly and sold off so many good players. We had a name for playing entertaining football, but I’m afraid that doesn’t bring the prizes home all the time.
The closest we came to winning the title in recent times was in the mid-Eighties, but even then the hero, Frank McAvennie, was sold to Celtic. No one knew why. He was hero-worshipped and his goals gave us a shot at winning the title for the first time ever. Shortly afterwards we bought him back, when the club was spiralling towards the lower half of the League. Why did they sell him in the first place? This question had so many wondering in amazement.
