We are in the midst of our pan-ultimate final season at Upton Park, before the ‘migration’ to the OS promise land. I have witnessed many great matches at the ‘Theatre of Football,’ as Brian Moore once memorably dubbed our stadium. They have included pulsating European cup ties, blood and thunder domestic cup ties/fixtures and some simply sublime footballing spectacles, such as the famous 7-0 destruction of Revie’s mighty Leed Utd. Many (too many over the years) have been ‘daring do or die’ relegation six pointers and acts of faith, which have seen us overcome the odds to vanquish strong opposition.
In the later category, the match that I always recall is the ‘thrills and spills,’ 4-2 victory over Manchester Utd on 16 May 1977. It was the final match of West Ham’s season and we were pitched against a Wembley bound Manchester Utd, who were due to face Liverpool in the FA Cup Final the following Saturday. The football was high octane and so was the atmosphere. It was one of those special nights under the lights, the famous old ground was packed to rafters and the ‘West Ham Way’ reigned supreme!
It is a match I remember affectionately and it must have made an enormous impression upon me, because I recently found the match programme, perfectly preserved and complete with match report clippings. Amongst those newspaper reports, is a delightfully playful and respectful piece by Peter Batt of the London Evening Standard. On this occasion, rather than impart my own memories of that match, I wish to share Batt ’s journalism with readers. Here goes:
’The East End battles through a blitz again …….. ’ The Peter Batt Column – Evening Standard (17 May 1977)
‘Two funerals of two old friends in the space of three days would have been at least one too many. On Saturday, we saw 5,000 young dervishes dancing on Spurs grave in a relegation ’demo’ that had more to do with their own personality problems than those of that famous old club.
Another wake and another mindless exhibition of mob rule at Upton Park last night would have been too much to bear. Fortunately, we were spared on both counts. The funeral march that West Ham have been conducting all season ended in a carnival with a breathtaking, life saving, 4-2 victory. And the fans stayed good naturedly where they were on the terraces to await the other relegation results, and to honour their departed heroes with chorus after chorus of their ‘bubbles’ anthem.
In the remorseless dog-eat-dog atmosphere that three-up and three-down has brought to English league football, champagne flowed as freely in the East End last night as it will at Wembley on Saturday. Survival in these money-troubled times means almost as much as victory. If you stay alive you get good and stoned because it is someone else, and not you, who will die tomorrow. When you have been through endless months of what looked like a terminal illness the strain is bound to show when they wheel you out in to the sunlight again, however.
Consequently, even the champagne could not sand paper through the worry lines on the young manager John Lyall’s face …… those lines that have grown deeper with every missed chance, every goal conceded and every point lost. The smile he wore tried to tell you that it was nothing really and he was prepared to reinforce it with brave words like: “There was never a time when I didn’t think that we were going to make it.” But even though time heals all wounds he still shuddered at the memory of a 6-0 defeat at Sunderland 16 matches ago and said: “I must admit that was the biggest blow of all.”
Having joined the club as a 15 year old 21 years ago, and been manager for the past three seasons, Lyall has had a few nights to remember – “but for me this must be the most emotional of them all,” he said.
To ask him how he felt when Manchester United went a goal; up through Hill inside 25 seconds of a match that his team had to win to stay in the First Division, was tantamount to inquiring of a road-crash victim how it felt to have the surgeon come up and kick you in the ribs. That kind of behaviour was precisely what made this match the compulsive sado-masochistic spectacle it was.
United were supposed to come to town with half a team of reserves, oozing benevolence and running miles away from tackles that could put any one of them out of the Cup Final. In short, they were supposed to give the Hammers the kiss of life, or so the cynics thought. In the event, they played with such flair and competed with such fervour that only the stark intensity of West Ham’s survival instincts saved them.
So strong was this instinct and so inspiring was the vocal support that they were able to fashion four goals of their own through Lampard, Pike and Robson (2) and even throw in a missed penalty against just one more from Pearson. If Saturday’s Cup Final is half as entertaining as this match was then it will be the best of the decade. It was worth waiting a season to see West Ham play like this again and Lyall was not exaggerating when he claimed: “That was as good as any West Ham display as I have ever seen.”
He was ready enough to acknowledge that it takes two teams to make a match, however, and such was United’s commitment that manager Tommy Docherty is to report referee Clive Thomas to the Football League for swearing at Brian Greenhoff. The Doc said solemnly: “After the fourth goal Brian pointed out that the linesman’s flag was up and the referee told him to ____ off.”
Thomas, who refereed last year’s United-Southampton Final replied: “I am disappointed that Tom sees fit to report me. But that is his prerogative, I don’t crawl. I admit that I swore but its industrial language we all use. Perhaps he should ask one or two of his players what words they were using. We shall just have to wait and see what the powers-that-be make of it.”
Three other clubs – Bristol City, Sunderland and Coventry – are now left to wait and see which one of them will take the place in the Second Division that West Ham once seemed doomed to occupy. While they prepare to battle it out on Thursday night, Lyall will be taking refuge with his reserve team who have a match with Crystal Palace today.
“Adversity does you no harm if you learn from it,” he said, with the conviction of a man who knows how it feels to burn the midnight oil.’
That final post-match quote, from Lyall, was to prove ironic. Because the club most definitely did not learn from the adversity of 1976-77, failed to strengthen the squad that summer and, consequently, merely deferred their relegation until the following season. But that all lay in the future, that exhilarating May evening in 1977, as we fans on the terraces understandably basked in the glory of a superb performance and result that was classic West Ham Utd.
SJ. Chandos.