Whilst the Hammers can claim fame to a number of wins against Liverpool, when it comes to playing them at Anfield it is a very different story. Our last win there was back on my now passed dads 48th birthday, the 14th September 1963. Now if my old man was still alive today he would be 98! This Saturday marks 50 years since we last won there. That day we had the Moore, Hurst and Peters trio in the team and the latter two scored the goals which saw us win by two goals to one. Whilst just about all Hammer fans will recall the famous three for later exploits, I wonder how many can remember our centre half that day? At just nineteen years of age and making his debut next to Bobby Moore in defence was a 19yo by the name of Dave Bickles. Sadly Dave died too young at the age of 55 back in 1999. Liverpool went on to win the League that season and we won the FA Cup. The two sides played a 2-2 draw in the Charity Shield the following year – at Anfield!
At the time of our last win at Anfield the average cost of a house in Britain was about the same as the cost of three season tickets to watch West Ham this season. A loaf of bread was 5p and if you did want a season ticket back in those days you could buy one for around a fiver. Man had not yet landed on the moon and a new group, the Beatles, were just starting to hit the charts. Ena Sharples and Minnie Caldwell were sitting in the Rovers Return “snug” on Coronation Street and another new show, Doctor Who, was about to air with its very scary Daleks. It was an eccentric time in England as for the first time most houses now had electricity. You could also walk down to the local store and buy a wonderful new invention – “sliced” bread. Wagon wheels were huge, mars bars were fat and long and the “milky bar kid” had just debuted. We only had two TV channels and of course they were black and white and you had to get up out of your chair to change channels. Crisps had two flavours, plain or if you found the bag of salt down the bottom you could have salted!
Back to the football and recent form hardly makes encouraging reading either. We have not scored a single goal in our last five visits there and only one goal in the last eight. We head to Anfield this weekend having scored just 4 times in 7 away games this season, and three of those were in the same game. However, we all know West Ham win just when we don’t expect them to. What would we give for three points this weekend – will the hoodoo be broken?