West Ham Till I Die
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Talking Point

Arsenal & Anniversaries

Three first-choice defenders unavailable. Three strikers also marooned in the treatment room. And away to a blue riband side who have smashed eight goals past us on our previous two visits to N5. A side containing the pace of Theo Walcott, the guile of Mesut Ozil, the trickery of Alexis Sanchez and the goalscoring ability (particularly against us) of Olivier Giroud. Needless to say, I feared for us on Saturday and hoped that my prediction of a 3-0 defeat for the Hammers would actually see the Gunners treating us with charitable kindness ahead of their midweek trip to Monaco. A cricket score did not seem beyond the realms of possibility.

As it transpired, the makeshift Irons gave it a darn good go. We had done enough to remain in the game until our recent knack of conceding late goals extended from the latter stages of a second half to the first when Giroud rifled beyond the excellent Adrian with just five seconds of first-half added time remaining. It could even be argued that we were the better side for 35 minutes of the second half, although clear-cut chances were admittedly at a premium. The best fell to Matt Jarvis, who one could have expected to find it tough to adjust to being brought in from the almost-Arctic cold of his recent first-team hiatus into the comparatively red-hot furnace of the Emirates (the phrase ‘red-hot furnace’ here undoubtedly has more to do with the opposition he was facing rather than the ‘atmosphere’ created by the home supporters…). In fact Jarvis, in my opinion, was our best outfield player on Saturday and has certainly staked his claim to retain his starting spot against Sunderland next weekend. For long periods we went toe-to-toe with Arsenal despite being forced to field an under-strength side and there was no shame to be found in our performance. My photo from the end of the game shows Cheikhou Kouyate running over to what remained of the Hammers’ travelling support to pass his shirt to one lucky fan.

In other news, 2015 sees the 50th anniversary of West Ham United’s only European triumph – the European Cup Winners’ Cup success of 1965. It is to be hoped that the club will be prioritising a commemoration of the greatest achievement in our history when we face Everton in our final home game of the season – the visit of the Toffees on Saturday 16th May falls three days before the half-century celebration of the final. Between now and the end of the season, I will be marking the anniversary of each game between the quarter-final first leg and the final itself with a brief run-down of each match.

Having disposed of Belgian side Gent (2-1 on aggregate) and Czech outfit Sparta Prague (3-2 on aggregate) in the earlier rounds, the Hammers travelled to Lausanne of Switzerland for the first leg of their quarter-final on the 16th March 1965. 20,000 supporters in the Stade Olympique de la Pontais, a venue for five games during the 1954 World Cup, saw Brian Dear give the visiting side a 21st-minute lead. Johnny Byrne doubled the Hammers’ advantage in the 53rd minute but Robert Hosp’s 80th-minute strike ensured, in typical West Ham fashion, that the second leg would be far from a formality.

The other quarter-final first leg results were:
Real Zaragoza 2-2 Cardiff City
Legia Warsaw 0-4 1860 Munich
Torino 1-1 Dinamo Zagreb

Lausanne: Rene Kunzi, Kurt Hunziker, Heinz Schneiter, Ely Tacchella, Andre Grobety, Kurt Armbruster, Richard Durr, Charles Hertig, Pierre Kerkhoffs, Norbert Eschmann, Robert Hosp.

West Ham United: Jim Standen, Bobby Moore, Ken Brown, Joe Kirkup, Alan Sealey, Martin Peters, Ronnie Boyce, Johnny Sissons, Geoff Hurst, Johnny Byrne, Brian Dear.

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