Mervyn Day was born on the 26th June 1955 and played in goal for West Ham between 1973 and 1979. He made his debut for the Hammers in a 3-3 draw against Ipswich at the tender age of 18 and went on to make 237 appearances for the club. His first few seasons at West Ham were inspiring. We had been having troubles in the goalkeeping area for years despite paying Kilmarnock a British record fee for Bobby Ferguson just six years previously and Mervyn was showing incredible early promise. He had been signed into the youth system by Ron Greenwood in 1971 so he was also home grown. It wasn’t just the sports writers that were claiming that West Ham and England’s future was in safe hands, Ron Greenwood himself went on record to say that the Hammers had found their goalkeeper “for the next ten years.”
Mervyn Day was full of respect for his boss. He was to say “on my first day as an associate schoolboy I got taken by goalkeeping coach Ernie Gregory in to the little gym behind the Upton Park dressing room and he had Martin Peters, an England World Cup winner, firing shots at me. As a 15 year old that was incredible. The bond got even closer when my father died when I was 17. I was an apprentice but Ron signed me as a full pro within a very short space of time to enable me to earn a little more money to help out at home. A short while later he gave me another increase. He was almost a surrogate father to me.”
Day went on to play 33 matches in his first season and only missed one game in the following three. In only his eleventh game for the Hammers he received a standing ovation from the Liverpool Kop in a 0-1 defeat that could have been a cricket score but for his fine display and in his next visit to Anfield he saved a penalty in a 2-2 draw. The season after he made his debut he was walking out at Wembley for the FA Cup Final against Fulham. Aged just 19 he became the youngest ever goalkeeper to play on such an occasion. He not only kept a clean sheet to help the Hammers lift the trophy that day, but that season he also became the only goalkeeper to win the PFA young player of the year award.
By now Mervyn Day was being touted as the next England goalkeeper. At times he was performing heroics in the West Ham goal and he was fast becoming a fans favourite. Tall and agile, he was a brilliant shot stopper and he was playing like a keeper well beyond his years. A season later and he was playing in the ECWC final in the Heysel Stadium against Anderlecht. Unfortunately, things did not go quite so well there as Day was beaten four times that night in our 4-2 loss.
However, by the 1977/78 season Day’s form had really tapered off. Playing in a side that eventually got relegated that season, his confidence was so bad he was eventually dropped and he only played 23 games that season. There are several theories to what triggered the loss of form, but one thing that did not help the lad was the stick he was getting from the Hammers supporters. In hindsight Mervyn said that he was ill prepared for such a tough run of form. The early seasons had gone so well that he had only known the good times and when the bad ones came he struggled to come to terms with the pressure. He was eventually sold to Leyton Orient in 1979, the same year that West Ham smashed the World record transfer fee for a goalkeeper. This time the Hammers spent wisely and signed Phil Parkes, arguably the greatest keeper in West Ham’s history.
Mervyn Day’s early seasons had been so full of promise, but his loss of form and confidence saw him fall short of making it all the way to the very top in the game. He still went on to have successful stints at Orient, Aston Villa and Leeds United where he won a second division championship. He finished his playing days at Carlisle United and went on to manage them a couple of years later. Mervyn did return to West Ham as assistant manager during Alan Curbishley’s reign from 2006 to 2008.
Today is Mervyn’s 60th birthday and I am sure you will all join me in wishing him a great Day.