Forgive me some indulgence here with the Nostalgia Series, but Patsy Holland was one of my favourite players of the seventies and was a loyal servant to West Ham. Whilst never one of the greats, he was a one club man (apart from a brief loan spell at Bournemouth) for the Hammers and was also an entertaining player to watch. He was yet another player from that era that was born local to the Boleyn, just down the road at Poplar. Pat Holland was to play 296 times for the Hammers over 13 seasons, scoring 32 goals. In January 1981 he played his last professional game at Notts County. Whilst scoring our only goal in a 1-1 draw he smashed his knee with the goalkeeper and his playing career was over.
Patsy played as a right midfielder, come winger, and was easily recognisable for his curly locks. He had a wicked sense of humour and was a good guy to have around the changing room but he probably never reached his full potential. In reality, his witty exterior was hiding the young mans fragile confidence. However, on quite a few occasions he did show just what he could do. Take a look at the attached video clip of his goal in an ITV “goal of the month” program from 1974. When you see the pitches they played on back in those days you realise just how skilful, and brave, these players were, Patsy included. In later years Patsy was to reflect on his career and was to admit that he regrets not having tried more of those mazy runs he was so good at – too often he became a grafter and took the simple option. He realised his lack of confidence had held him back from showing the fans what he was truly capable of and perhaps the early years when a section of the crowd was on his back at Upton Park did not help? On his day however, he was a joy to watch.
Despite being born in Poplar, Patsy was actually a boyhood Arsenal fan. When West Ham’s famous chief scout Wally St Pier asked Patsy to come and train with the Hammers, the 15yo was too scared to say no – despite Spurs Bill Nicholson tracking the lad at the same time. Patsy went home to his dad that night and said “I am scared of that Wally St Pier. He’s a big man with huge hands” He was later to confirm that Wally was a lovely man despite his initial fears. So it was ironic that Patsy made his debut in 1969 against the team he supported as a boy – Arsenal. However, it was a game he would rather forget. Bob McNab, the Arsenal full back, was to give the debutant a “nice early kick” and the shy youngster barely featured again after that introduction. He was despatched off to the reserves and it would be eight months before he returned to first team duties. A few excellent performances were typically followed by a slump in form and he was loaned out to fourth division Bournemouth in an attempt to toughen him up. Ron Greenwood described him as a “shrinking violet” at the time.
However, it was Billy Bonds during “one on one” training ground sessions on Thursday afternoons that did the job. “Bill would knock me down and pull me up saying – come on Dutch, let’s go again. It was great and Bonzo toughened me up a lot”. A few years later Patsy played a big part in both Alan Taylor’s goals in the FA Cup Final win of 1975 and he also scored the first goal of the ensuing ECWC Final loss to Anderlecht the following year. Unfortunately, injury would see him miss the 1980 Cup Final win against Arsenal. Patsy, now a reformed Hammer fan for life, was to say that the most memorable match of his career was the ECWC semi final at Upton Park against Eintracht Frankfurt in 1976. “The fans that night – I’ve never known anything like that”.