Blast from the past
Today’s blast from the past features a 3-1 victory at Upton Park against this weekend’s opponents, Crystal Palace. It arrived more than a century ago, on the 25th of March 1910 in front of 15,000 spectators.
Bela Bartok’s ‘String Quartet No.1’ had premiered in Budapest six days earlier and, a week before the game, the first cinematic version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein had been released in the United States by Edison Studios, becoming one of the first ever horror films. In East London, legendary Hammers goal-getter Danny Shea (pictured) scored twice against our south London neighbours, while an own goal from 30-year-old Palace right-back Joe Bulcock completed the Irons’ goalscoring.
Born in Wapping on 6th November 1887, Shea was spotted by Charlie Paynter playing for the Builders’ Arms pub in Stratford. Nicknamed ‘The Artful Dodger’, he scored 186 goals in 290 appearances in two spells with West Ham. He died on Christmas Day 1960 at the age of 73.
Bulcock, the right-back who scored an own goal for the Hammers that day in March 1910, made 146 appearances for Palace between 1909 and 1914 having played for Bury in the Football League earlier in his career. The youngest of three brothers, he served as a private in the Welch Regiment during World War One and sadly died of wounds to the head at 36th Casualty Clearing Station in Watten, France on 20th April 1918 at the age of 39. He was buried in Haringhe Military Cemetery in Belgium.
Syd King’s Hammers ended the 1909/10 season in ninth position in the Southern League First Division. Shea finished the season as the club’s top scorer with 28 league goals and 31 in all competitions. Crystal Palace were to finish seventh, one point and two places above the Irons. Brighton were promoted from the division to the Football League as champions. Aston Villa won the league title and Newcastle won the FA Cup.
West Ham United: George Kitchen, Fred Shreeve, Bob Fairman, Robert Whiteman, Tommy Randall, Herbert Ashton, Fred Massey, George Webb, Danny Shea, William Silor, Fred Blackburn.
Club Connections
West Ham United Academy product and 2012 Hammer of the Year runner-up James Tomkins could feature for Crystal Palace, for whom he signed from the Hammers in a £10m deal last summer. Former Hammers manager Sam Allardyce, now in charge of the Eagles, will face the club he managed between 2011 and 2015. Ex-Hammer Kevin Keen is first-team coach at Selhurst Park. A large group of players have turned out for the Hammers and the Eagles. Divided here by position, they include:
Goalkeepers: Perry Suckling, Steve Mautone, Vincent Blore.
Defenders: Kenny Brown, Neil Ruddock, Paul Brush, Danny Gabbidon, Chris Powell, Alan Stephenson, Tony Gale, Matthew Upson, Darren Powell.
Midfielders: Hayden Mullins, Carl Fletcher, Jobi McAnuff, Kyel Reid, Ray Houghton, Michael Hughes.
Strikers: Ian Wright, Jeroen Boere, Johnny Byrne, Clive Allen, Dave Swindlehurst, Paul Kitson, Ron Brett, Dave Sexton, Marouane Chamakh, Freddie Sears.
Malcolm Allison and Jack Tresadern played for the Hammers and managed the Eagles, while Iain Dowie played for both clubs and also managed Palace. Alan Pardew played for the Eagles and managed both clubs.
Today’s focus though is on a current Nigeria international winger. Victor Moses was born in Lagos, Nigeria on 12th December 1990, the son of a Christian pastor. When Victor was just 11 years old in 2002 and playing in the street with a football bound together with sticky tape, his parents Austin and Josephine were attacked in their home and murdered. Religious riots between the Muslim majority and Christian minority divided Nigeria and Moses’ father, who had his own church, was a target. The orphaned Victor was hidden by his uncle for a week after the murder before he was flown to England for his own safety to seek asylum.
Moses, who was coached by former Chelsea and Arsenal defender Colin Pates while at school in Croydon, was offered a place in Crystal Palace’s Academy and scored 50 goals in one season for the Under-14s. He made his first team debut at the age of 16 on 6th November 2007 in a 1-1 draw with Cardiff. His first goal for the club arrived on 12th March 2008 in a 1-1 draw with West Brom. Moses made 16 appearances as the Eagles reached the Championship play-offs and signed a new contract with Neil Warnock’s men at the end of the season.
The winger scored twice in 32 matches in 2008/09 but Palace plummeted to finish in 15th position. Moses went on a run of scoring six goals in eight matches in the first half of 2009/10 and, as Palace went into administration in January 2010, the 20-year-old Moses was sold to Premier League Wigan for £2.5m. He had scored 11 goals for Crystal Palace in 69 appearances.
Moses spent two and a half years at Wigan before signing for Chelsea in August 2012. He made a loan move to Liverpool the next summer, spending the 2013/14 season at Anfield before another season-long loan move to Stoke materialised for 2014/15.
A third season-long loan took him to Slaven Bilic’s West Ham United on 1st September 2015 but not before the 24-year-old Moses had signed a four-year contract with Chelsea, his parent club. He made his debut in a 2-0 home win over Newcastle on 14th September 2015 and scored his first goal for the Hammers in his next match five days later, the opener in our terrific 2-1 triumph at Manchester City. An injury sustained at Old Trafford in early December, coupled with the emergence of Michail Antonio as a force in his stead, curtailed Moses’ progress but he did score his second goal for the Irons in our 5-1 FA Cup fifth round win at Blackburn on 21st February 2016. His final appearance for the club was as a substitute on the final day of last season in the 2-1 defeat at Stoke. Having scored twice in 26 matches for West Ham United, Moses returned to Chelsea.
Moses, now 26, has been a revelation for Antonio Conte’s table-topping Blues this season in the right wing-back position. He has also scored nine goals in 27 appearances for Nigeria since making his debut in 2012, having appeared for England at youth levels.
Referee
Saturday’s referee will be Neil Swarbrick. The Lancashire-based official took charge of two of West Ham United’s highlights from 2013/14, the 0-0 draw against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and the 2-1 League Cup quarter-final victory against Tottenham at White Hart Lane. He also officiated in two league matches involving the Hammers in 2012/13, those being the 4-1 home win over Southampton and the 3-0 defeat at Sunderland. He was the man in the middle for the controversy-laden 2-1 home defeat to Arsenal in December 2014, disallowing Alex Song’s volley from distance for offside, awarding the Gunners a penalty for a Winston Reid foul on Santi Cazorla and failing to award the Hammers an injury-time penalty for a clear tug on Morgan Amalfitano. Swarbrick was also the referee for the FA Cup penalty-shoot-out triumph over Everton in January 2015, sending off Aiden McGeady in the process.
Swarbrick’s only appointments involving the Hammers last season were for our two trips to the North East; our 2-2 draw at Sunderland in October 2015, when he sent off Jeremain Lens, and the 2-1 defeat at Newcastle in January 2016. His only Hammers match this season was the 1-1 home draw with Middlesbrough in October.
Possible line-ups
West Ham United are without Alvaro Arbeloa, Arthur Masuaku, Gokhan Tore and Diafra Sakho. Michail Antonio did not train yesterday due to illness and is a doubt, while James Collins may not be fit enough yet to start. Dimitri Payet will not be considered but Sam Byram and Reece Oxford come into contention. The Hammers have not recorded a home victory over the Eagles since October 2003, having drawn two and lost two of the last four matches between the clubs in East London.
Crystal Palace will be without Steve Mandanda, Pape Souare and Connor Wickham while Wayne Hennessey, Scott Dann, James McArthur and Christian Benteke are fitness doubts. Wilfried Zaha and Bakary Sako are both on international duty at the African Cup of Nations, meaning Lee Chung-Yong could start.
Possible West Ham United XI: Randolph; Nordtveit, Reid, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Obiang, Noble; Feghouli, Lanzini, Antonio; Carroll.
Possible Crystal Palace XI: Hennessey; Kelly, Tomkins, Dann, Ward; Ledley, Cabaye; Townsend, Puncheon, Lee; Benteke.
Enjoy the game – Up The Hammers!