Blast from the past
31st October 1925 – at the end of a month which had seen John Logie Baird successfully transmit the first television pictures with a greyscale image, the introduction of covered top decks to London’s double-decker buses and Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra’s ‘Charleston’ dominate the music scene, West Ham United emerged victorious from a First Division encounter against Manchester City with a 3-1 win in front of 16,172.
The Hammers’ goals came courtesy of legendary outside-left Jimmy Ruffell, wing-half Syd Bishop (his only goal of the season) and inside-right Stan Earle. The victory moved the Irons into seventh position in the table.
Ruffell, 5’9 with low-slung hips and blessed with a wonderful touch and searing pace, was a goalscoring winger who bagged 12 goals that season to go towards his total of 166 goals from 548 appearances for West Ham United between 1921 and 1937. Born in Yorkshire, Ruffell won six England caps and laid on countless goals for Vic Watson. He topped the club’s appearance charts for 36 years until the great Bobby Moore surpassed him in 1973 – the pair are pictured together below. Ruffell worked as a brewery representative after retiring from football and died on the 6th September 1989, at the age of 89.
The Hammers, who had topped the table in mid-September, went on to finish in 18th place in the 1925/26 Division One season while City ended up 21st and were relegated. Vic Watson was the Irons’ top scorer with 20 goals from 39 games, Huddersfield won the league title and Bolton won the FA Cup, beating the relegated Manchester City in the Final.
West Ham United: Ted Hufton, Jack Hebden, Tommy Hodgson, Syd Bishop, George Carter, Jim Barrett, Albert Cadwell, Tommy Yews, Stan Earle, Billy Moore, Jimmy Ruffell.
Club Connections
A large group of players have turned out for West Ham United and Manchester City. Divided by playing position, they include:
Goalkeepers – David James, Perry Suckling.
Defenders – Wayne Bridge, Stuart Pearce, Tal Ben Haim, Tyrone Mears.
Midfielders – Marc-Vivien Foe, Kevin Horlock, Eyal Berkovic, Mark Ward, Steve Lomas, Frank Lampard Junior, Michael Hughes, Ian Bishop, Trevor Sinclair.
Strikers – Carlos Tevez, Phil Woosnam, Justin Fashanu, Trevor Morley, Paulo Wanchope, Clive Allen, David Cross, George Webb.
Malcolm Allison and John Bond join Stuart Pearce as West Ham players who have gone on to manage City.
Today’s focus though is on a Welsh international who had an injury-hit 18 months with the Hammers before joining City in 2009. Craig Bellamy was born on 13th July 1979 and started his football career as a nine-year-old with Bristol Rovers before joining Norwich two years later. He made his debut for the Canaries in March 1997 and moved to Premier League Coventry in the summer of 2000. After one season at Highfield Road, Bellamy signed for Newcastle where he would go on to experience Champions League football. Following personal issues at the club, Bellamy moved to Celtic on loan in January 2005 before signing for Blackburn the following summer. After a single season at Ewood Park, Bellamy was on the move again, this time to Liverpool.
After just one season at Anfield, Alan Curbishley brought Bellamy to West Ham United for a club record fee of £7.5m in July 2007. The 28-year-old made his debut against Manchester City in a 2-0 home defeat on the opening day of the 2007/08 campaign and scored his first goals for the club when bagging a brace in a 2-1 League Cup second round win at Bristol Rovers on 28th August 2007. He followed that up with his first league strike for the club four days later, in a 3-0 win at Reading. His first goal at Upton Park in claret and blue came on 21st October 2007, to clinch the points in a 3-1 home win over Sunderland. Curbishley’s plans for Dean Ashton to lead the line surrounded by the pace of Bellamy, fellow new signing Julien Faubert and Matthew Etherington were hit by injuries and, from the end of October, Bellamy himself would only make one substitute appearance for the remainder of the season.
‘Bellars’ made his return on 30th August 2008, joining the action from the bench to score in a 4-1 home win over former club Blackburn in Curbishley’s last match in charge before Gianfranco Zola took over. Niggly injuries followed but the Welsh striker was well into his stride around the Christmas period, scoring at Chelsea in a 1-1 draw on 14th December before bagging a clinical brace in a 4-1 win at Portsmouth on Boxing Day. Bellamy’s final game in claret and blue also saw his final goal, in a 2-2 draw at former club Newcastle on 10th January 2009. Having started to show why the club broke their transfer record when signing him, the club’s Icelandic owners could not resist the opportunity to cash in on their star striker and sold the 29-year-old Bellamy to Manchester City for £14m. He had scored nine goals in 26 appearances in all competitions for West Ham United.
Bellamy, who in signing for City had teamed up with his former Wales manager Mark Hughes, marked his debut for City on 28th January 2009 with the winning goal in a 2-1 win against his former club Newcastle at the City of Manchester Stadium, making him only the fifth player in Premier League history to have scored for six different top-flight clubs. Bellamy’s next goal came against Middlesbrough, sealing the points in a 1-0 win. He also scored against former club Liverpool at Anfield in a 1-1 draw on 22nd February 2009.
Bellamy opened his account for the 2009/10 season with a goal in City’s 4-2 win over Arsenal on 12th September 2009 and followed that up a week later with two goals against Manchester United in a 4-3 derby defeat. As his popularity with Manchester City fans rose, his next goal earned a point in a 1-1 draw at Villa Park on 5th October, while he also scored in a 3-3 home draw with Burnley on 7th November 2009. He scored again on 19th December against Sunderland in a 4-3 victory, a match which turned out to be Hughes’ last game in charge of the club. Under new boss Roberto Mancini, Bellamy scored an equaliser against Stoke in an FA Cup fifth round replay, but City would go on to lose 3-1. Bellamy then scored two goals at Stamford Bridge in a 4-2 win against Chelsea.
Bellamy joined hometown club Cardiff on a season-long loan in August 2010 before re-joining former club Liverpool on a free transfer in August 2011. He had scored 15 goals in 51 appearances in all competitions for Manchester City. After one season at Anfield, Bellamy re-joined Cardiff, where he stayed for two years and became the first player to score for seven different clubs in the Premier League, before announcing his retirement in May 2014 at the age of 34. He had won 78 caps for Wales, scoring 19 goals, and also scored for and captained Great Britain during the 2012 Olympics. Now 37, Bellamy is an academy coach at Cardiff and runs the Craig Bellamy Foundation in Sierra Leone.
Referee
Wednesday’s referee is Kevin Friend. The Leicester-based official has been involved in top-flight matches since 2009 and last took charge of the Hammers in our historic 3-0 victory at Liverpool in August 2015. He sent off Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho and West Ham’s Mark Noble in that match at Anfield, with the latter’s dismissal rescinded on appeal.
Friend is also remembered for the soft penalty he gifted Hull in our 1-0 defeat at the KC Stadium in September 2013 when Joey O’Brien was adjudged to have shoved Robbie Brady. Friend compounded the error by later denying the Irons a clear penalty when Jake Livermore handled in the area. Don’t expect much from Friend in the way of handball decisions – he also denied the Hammers a penalty in a match at Everton when Aaron Cresswell’s cross was handled by Seamus Coleman.
Possible line-ups
West Ham United have Alvaro Arbeloa, Angelo Ogbonna, Arthur Masuaku, Havard Nordtveit, Gokhan Tore and Diafra Sakho on the injury list. Mark Noble and Andy Carroll are expected to be in Slaven Bilic’s squad, while Jose Fonte and Robert Snodgrass could make home debuts.
Manchester City will be without Ilkay Gundogan, while Sergio Aguero is a doubt. Pep Guardiola has Fernandinho available again after a four-match suspension.
Possible West Ham United XI: Randolph; Fonte, Collins, Reid; Byram, Obiang, Noble, Cresswell; Antonio, Lanzini; Carroll.
Possible Manchester City XI: Bravo; Zabaleta, Kompany, Kolarov, Clichy; Fernandinho; Sterling, De Bruyne, Silva, Sane; Aguero.
Enjoy the game – Up The Hammers!
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