Blast from the past
Early 1974 – the Three-Day Week and IRA bombings dominated the headlines. By Good Friday on the 12th April, Harold Wilson had just been reinstated as Prime Minister as Labour formed a minority government, a state of emergency had been declared in Northern Ireland and ABBA had just won the Eurovision Song Contest with ‘Waterloo’.
Terry Jacks was number one with ‘Seasons In The Sun’ and Hammer horror Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter was in cinemas as an 11am kick-off saw West Ham United take on Southampton in a relegation rumble front of 34,163 on Good Friday at The Boleyn Ground. It was to be a particularly good Friday for the Hammers and a great one for Clyde Best (pictured above) and Bryan ‘Pop’ Robson as both strikers bagged a brace to lead West Ham to a 4-1 win over the Saints in the old First Division, with Mick Channon netting for the visitors.
The Saints ended up occupying 20th place, thereby filling the final relegation spot of 1973/74 having accumulated 36 points, just one less than the Hammers had accrued in 18th position. Billy Bonds was voted Hammer of the Year for the second time, Leeds were First Division champions and Liverpool won the FA Cup.
West Ham United: Mervyn Day, John McDowell, Mick McGiven, Tommy Taylor, Kevin Lock, Frank Lampard, Billy Bonds, Trevor Brooking, Graham Paddon, Clyde Best, Bryan Robson.
Southampton: Eric Martin, Bob McCarthy, Paul Bennett, Jim Steele, Steve Mills, Hugh Fisher (Paul Gilchrist), Brian O’Neil, Terry Paine, Mick Channon, Peter Osgood, Bobby Stokes.
Club Connections
An array of West Ham United’s good, bad and ugly have also turned out for Southampton:
Goalkeepers: Richard Wright, George Kitchen.
Defenders: Richard Hall, Joe Kirkup, Wayne Bridge, Christian Dailly, Neil Ruddock, Bill Adams, Ian Pearce, Darren Powell, Albie Roles, Horace Glover.
Midfielders: Nigel Quashie, Paul Allen, Eyal Berkovic, Robbie Slater, Luis Boa Morte.
Strikers: Vic Watson, Justin Fashanu, David Speedie, Iain Dowie, David Connolly, Ted MacDougall, Henri Camara, Alex McDonald, Frank Costello, Fred Harrison, Walter Pollard, Arthur Wilson, Jimmy Harris, Jack Foster.
In addition, George Kay played for the Hammers and managed the Saints while Harry Redknapp and Alan Pardew have managed both clubs.
Today’s focus though falls on a centre-back who had two spells with the Hammers and a loan stint with the Saints. Calum Davenport was born on the 1st January 1983 in Bedford and started his professional career at Coventry in 2001. Davenport joined Tottenham in August 2004 at the age of 21 and was almost immediately loaned to West Ham United, then playing a second successive season in the second tier.
The 6’4 defender made his debut for Alan Pardew’s West Ham on 11th September 2004, in a 2-1 win at Sheffield United and made 10 appearances for the Hammers during his temporary stint. He went on to have a loan spell with Southampton, making 12 appearances before another loan move to Norwich. Having represented England at Under-19, Under-20 and Under-21 level, he finally made his Premier League debut for Spurs 20 months after signing for the club.
The 24-year-old returned to West Ham, this time in a permanent deal as he became one of Alan Curbishley’s first signings in January 2007 for a reported fee of £3m. He made his second debut for the Hammers and had a goal disallowed in a 2-2 draw at Newcastle on 20th January 2007. The Irons struggled but eventually survived in 2006/07 – Davenport found it difficult to dislodge Anton Ferdinand and Matthew Upson the following season and was loaned out to Championship side Watford in January 2008. A fractured bone in his neck suffered on his debut put paid to any hopes of a permanent move to Vicarage Road.
Injuries saw Davenport start the 2008/09 season in the Hammers’ first team and he impressed, scoring with a header from a Julien Faubert corner in a 4-1 home win over Paul Ince’s Blackburn on 30th August 2008, his only goal for the club. He made his final appearance in claret and blue on Boxing Day 2008, in a 4-1 win at Portsmouth. After 24 appearances and one goal for West Ham United, his playing career with the Hammers was over, although he was to remain on the books for a further 15 months.
Davenport joined Sunderland on loan in February 2009 but returned to east London for the start of the 2009/10 season. Unfortunately, a bizarre turn of events was to spell disaster for Davenport and his professional footballing career. In the early hours of 22nd August 2009, Davenport and his mother were stabbed at her home in Kempston, Bedfordshire. Davenport was stabbed in the legs, lost 50% of the blood from his body and underwent emergency surgery. Two men were arrested on the same day in connection with the stabbings and, at Bedford Magistrates Court on the 24th August 2009, 25-year-old Worrell Whitehurst, the boyfriend of Davenport’s sister, was remanded in custody charged with grievous bodily harm with intent in connection with the attack on Davenport and with assault occasioning actual bodily harm to his mother. Whitehurst was jailed for six years on 12th July 2010 for the attack on Davenport, after he had admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent; he also admitted a charge of unlawfully wounding Davenport’s mother.
Within four days of taking over the club in January 2010, David Sullivan and David Gold suspended Davenport’s wages until completion of the court case alleging breach of contract on his part when he was involved in the assault. His contract was terminated by mutual consent two months later. Davenport was eventually cleared of all charges in regard to an alleged assault on his sister. He had spells on trial at Nottingham Forest and Leeds but ended up at United Counties side Wootton Blue Cross and has since played for Elstow Abbey – Davenport, now 33, was expelled from the club on 22nd March 2015 for an alleged assault which had occurred in the changing-room.
Referee
The referee on Sunday will be Jonathan Moss. The Yorkshire-based official has sent off a player in each of his last six appointments involving the Hammers – the 4-3 defeat to Bournemouth in August 2015 saw Carl Jenkinson sent off, while the 2-1 win over Chelsea last October saw Nemanja Matic dismissed (then-Blues manager Jose Mourinho was also sent to the stands). Moss issued a red card to Jordan Ayew of Aston Villa in February with the Hammers going on to win 2-0 while, going further back, Burnley’s Michael Duff was also sent off by Moss in our 1-0 home win over the Clarets in May 2015.
Moss also issued a red card to Cheikhou Kouyate in the 5-1 FA Cup fifth round win at Blackburn in February, although this was later rescinded. The 45-year-old’s most recent Hammers appointment was the hugely controversial 2-2 draw at Leicester in April when he sent off Jamie Vardy and awarded two penalties, the second arriving deep into stoppage time as the Foxes rescued a precious point.
Possible line-ups
Arthur Masuaku joins Aaron Cresswell, Andre Ayew, Andy Carroll and Diafra Sakho on the injured list. Alvaro Arbeloa may not yet be in a position fitness-wise to play so soon after completing 90 minutes on Wednesday against Accrington so Havard Nordtveit could play at right-back, as he did at West Brom, with Sam Byram coming in at left-back. Winston Reid could be back in contention after a knock kept him out of the trip to The Hawthorns last weekend.
For Southampton, Sofiane Boufal and Jeremy Pied are both ruled out through injury, while Jay Rodriguez is also set to miss out with a knock. Stick with the Hammers if we go behind on Sunday – the team scoring first in this fixture has gone on to lose in each of the last three seasons.
Possible West Ham United XI: Adrian; Nordtveit, Collins, Ogbonna, Byram; Kouyate, Noble; Antonio, Lanzini, Payet; Zaza.
Possible Southampton XI: Forster; Soares, Fonte, van Dijk, Bertrand; Clasie, Romeu, Davis; Redmond, Austin, Tadic.
Enjoy the game – Come On You Irons!