We all know them, the players that do the effective, unspectacular jobs for the sake of the team.  The players that do not get the praise or reputation of their more talented  or their higher profile team mates.  Then there are also the players who came to West Ham and played a short, but significant part in our history and then as quickly moved on again.

Thinking about the more recent decades of Hammers history I have identified a number of players who genuinely were unsung heroes.  In the 1950s there was Andy Malcolm, one of the best defensive right-halves ever to wear the claret and blue jersey.  He shielded the centre halves and won and released the ball to our more creative forwards.  He was an expert man to man marker and invariably marked more exalted players like Jimmy Greaves (in his Chelsea years) completely out of the game.  The 1957-58 team was built upon this rock at the centre of midfield.

In the 1960s we have a defensive right-half who was right up there with Bonds and Malcolm as amongst the very best we have had  in that role.  Eddie Bovington did the hard graft for the 1963-64 cup winning team, winning tackles and distributing the ball.  It is often forgotten that when Bovington came in to the team at Boxing Day 1963 the team had just suffered a record 8 goal Christmas Day home defeat to Backburn Rovers, but we then went up there for the corresponding holiday fixture and turned them over 0-3 with Bovington running the show.  He displaced Martin Peters in the team and was to keep him out all the way to the 1964 FA Cup Final.

In the 1970s we have Patsy Holland and Bobby Gould.  Holland was a real workhorse who also had considerable skill.  He could  play in central or on the left side of midfield.  He frequently deputised for Billy Bonds in the centre, but made the  greater number of appearances wide left.  This useful dynamo, with the ability to score vital goals, won a late place in the 1975 FA Cup Final team and famously scored our first goal in the 1976 ECWC Final.  

Bobby Gould was a 28 year old journeyman striker who Bill Shankley somewhat unkindly observed ‘could not trap a wet bag of cement. ’  However, Ron Greenwood knew better, he was convinced that Gould had untapped potential that that his coaching could help him realise it.   When he joined us in 1974-75 we had an absolutely dire start to the season.  Gould, along with fellow new recruits Billy Jennings and Keith Robson, transformed our fortunes with a 6-0 defeat of Tranmere in the League cup, 6-1 demolition of Leicester City and a ultra efficient 3-0 destructions of Wolves and Middlesboro.    He played his very best football at West Ham, glorying in Greenwood’s later observation that he had been transmuted in to a player worthy to wear the West Ham shirt.  Gould later stated if he had joined West Ham as a youngster he might have gone on to play for England, such was his rate of improvement at the famed Academy of English Football.  He was a key player in the 1975 FA Cup run,  scoring a vital winning goal at Southampton in the fourth round, but was 12th man in the final.  He moved to Wolves on in 1976-77 and played for a number of other clubs before retiring.

In the 1980s Neil Orr and Geoff Pike did the hard graft for the 1985-86 team.  Covering the pitch, breaking up attacks and winning and distributing the ball.  Orr joined from Scotish football and played unconvincingly as a centre back in the last games of 1984-85, but it was in midfield that he found his true role in that memorable campaign.  He left in 1986-87 and returned from whence he came.  Pike was another skilled workhorse.  His greatest hour was probably the man marking job that he did on Liam Brady in the 1980 FA Cup Final, one of the decisive engagements that delivered us victory.  In 1985-86 he deputised for Orr and put in some very effective shifts. 

In the 1990s we have Trevor Morley and Matty Holmes.  Morley was a striker who came to Upton Park from Man City, via Northampton Town,  in part-exchange for Mark Ward.  It was probably the best thing that Lou Macari did in his short reign as manager.  Morley became a fixture  for West Ham throughout the 1990s and his goals were crucial in the two promotion campaigns under Billy Bonds and later in establishing the club in the premiership under Redknapp. 

Matty Holmes was one of Redknapp’s bargain basement buys that really came off.  He joined from Bournemouth and was an all-action midfielder with very good technique and vision.  He was played a key role in midfield in 1994-95 to stave off relegation with some fanastic results in the run in (including beating champions elect Blackburn     2-0, Liverpool 3-0 and holding Man Utd to a 1-1 draw to deny them the title).  He  left  the club in 1996-97 in a transfer to Blackburn that saw Robbie Slater arrive in part-exchange.

In the period 2000-09 we have Sebastian Schemmel and Shaka Hislop.  Schemmel was a player recruited by Redknapp from French football who won Hammer of the year in 2000/01 with some barnstorming displays at right-back.  Alas, he was to have a falling out with Glen Roeder and be exiled to the reserves, before being shipped out at the first opportunity.  Schemmel was a player that was harshly treated, but not the only or most high profile Hammer to suffer thus under the Roeder regime. 

Shaka Hislop was a shot stopper par excellence, another very good Redknapp acquisition.  He saved us countless league points with saves that defied belief.   He was another who fell out of favour under Roeder’s management, losing his place to David James before being transferred.  Shaka prophetically stated on leaving that he did not know why the club had wasted £3-4m on James when there were other positions that were an higher priority for strengthening.  Too true, like another striker for instance!!!!  Shaka was destined to have a great swan song with the Hammers, later being brought back by Alan Pardew to provide goal keeping cover.  He starred again in 2005-06 and kept goal in the famous 2006 FA Cup Final. 

 Shaka saw his last action for the club in the losing penalty shoot out against Liverpool.  If there was one man that deserved to be on the winning side that day, and receive a much deserved winners medal, it was the admirable Shaka Hislop!

So, who were your unsung Hammers Heroes?   For every artist like Brooking, Devonshire, Peters or Di Canio there is an artisan, such as  Bovington, Holland, Orr or Pike doing the hard graft and making the team work as a unit.  In difficult times it pays to remember these players and the fact that guts, spirit, hard work and application do pay dividends!  Exactly the qualities that we need now to underpin the undoubted ability of our squad and get the season back online and moving in the right direction!

SJ Chandos.

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