Blast from the past
Monday 30th August 1937 – King George VI was on the throne, Neville Chamberlain had just entered his third month as Prime Minister, Paul Muni was in UK cinemas in The Life of Emile Zola and Benjamin Britten’s string orchestral work ‘Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op. 10’ received its concert premiere at the Salzburg Festival, bringing the English composer to international attention. West Ham United, meanwhile, were recording a 2-1 victory over Swansea Town (as they were then known) in front of 15,473 at the Boleyn Ground’s first home game of the 1937/38 campaign.
Wing-half Ted Fenton (pictured above during his 11 years as West Ham manager) and outside-right Stan Foxall bagged the Hammers’ goals in this encounter – Fenton would score three goals from 33 appearances in 1937/38, with Foxall notching ten goals in 36 matches to finish level with Scottish forward Archie Macaulay as the club’s top goalscorer that season.
Charlie Paynter’s Hammers would finish ninth in the Second Division in 1937/38, while Swansea would end the campaign in 18th, two points and three places clear of relegation. Aston Villa won the Second Division, Arsenal won the league title and Preston won the FA Cup. Bizarrely, Manchester City (the reigning league champions that season) were the First Division’s highest goalscorers with 80 goals from 42 matches and finished with a +3 goal difference but were still relegated in 21st place!
West Ham United: Jack Weare, Charlie Bicknell, Charlie Walker, Joe Cockroft, Dick Walker, Ted Fenton, Stan Foxall, Tommy Green, Archie Macaulay, Sam Small, John Morton.
Club Connections
West Ham United’s record signing Andre Ayew could face the club he departed last summer. A small number of players join him in having worn the shirts of both West Ham United and Swansea City. These include:
Goalkeeper: Noel Dwyer.
Defenders: Andy Melville and Shaun Byrne.
Midfielders: Frank Lampard Junior.
Strikers: Frank Nouble and Lee Chapman.
John Bond also represented both clubs, playing for the Hammers and managing the Swans.
Today’s focus though is on a homegrown Hammers product who returned from a short stint at Swansea to kickstart his Upton Park career. Matthew Rush was born in Dalston on 6th August 1971 and was a right-winger who came through the Academy at West Ham United. He made his debut as a 19-year-old under Billy Bonds in a 7-1 victory over Hull on 6th October 1990, a game famous for Steve Potts’ solitary Hammers’ strike. Bonzo’s boys achieved promotion at the end of that season, a campaign which also saw Rush pick up Under-21 international honours for the Republic of Ireland, for whom he qualified through his Irish mother. He scored his first goals for the Hammers on 11th April 1992, a double in a 4-0 win over Norwich, but the Hammers would ultimately yo-yo back to the second tier. Rush endured a testing two-year period when it appeared his Hammers career was fading and dying. His only appearances in the promotion campaign of 1992/93 came in the now-defunct Anglo-Italian Cup, in which he was sent off in a 0-0 home draw with Pisa, and he had a spell on loan at Cambridge United towards the end of that season.
Rush remained out in the cold as the Hammers set about establishing themselves in their first season in the Premier League. He joined Swansea City for a two-month loan spell in January 1994, playing 13 league matches and starting both legs of the Football League Trophy Area Final against Wycombe Wanderers that would see the Swans progress to Wembley. The Swans only lost two league matches while Rush was at the club and, although he was back at West Ham by the time of the Trophy National Final, Swansea invited him to attend the game at Wembley.
Rush was handed a surprise start by Bonds on Easter Saturday 1994 against Ipswich at Upton Park and scored a stunning, dipping volley from distance to put the Irons on their way to a 2-1 victory, their first win since New Year’s Day.
Rush signed a three-year contract that summer, rejecting overtures from Kevin Keegan’s upwardly-mobile Newcastle United. He found opportunities increasingly sparse under Harry Redknapp in 1994/95 but did score in successive league matches in late October 1994, a 2-0 win over Southampton and a 3-1 defeat at Tottenham. His searing pace also played a major part in a barnstorming 2-0 victory over champions-in-waiting Blackburn Rovers, Rush streaking away from Colin Hendry late on to lay on a cross which led to Don Hutchison sealing the points in the Hammers’ ultimately successful quest for survival. This was to prove to be Rush’s final appearance in a claret and blue shirt. Three of Rush’s five goals for the Hammers can be viewed in my video below.
Having scored five goals in 55 appearances for West Ham, the 24-year-old Rush was sold to Norwich in the summer of 1995 for £350,000. Three days after signing, on his debut for the Canaries against Sunderland, he badly ruptured his knee. He sought to gain fitness in a loan spell at Northampton and eventually joined Oldham in March 1997 having made just three appearances for the Canaries in his 18 months at Carrow Road. Rush sustained cruciate ligament damage in a match against Carlisle in April 1998 and was forced to retire from the game at the age of just 27.
Upon retiring, Rush went to university for four years to study for a degree in Applied Sports Science and then went on to do a post-graduate course. He studied for a further year to gain teacher qualifications and taught in a sports academy in Manchester for a year before teaching PE at a school in Cheshire for five years. His daughter Lana won a national tennis tournament at the age of ten and Rush moved to Barcelona with his daughter so she could attend a tennis academy while his wife Caroline continued working in the UK. The Rush family later moved together to London with Matthew accompanying his daughter to tennis events around the world. Lana is now 19 and has a tennis scholarship at Florida State University. She competed in Junior Wimbledon in 2012 and 2013.
Rush’s wife Caroline is Chief Executive of the British Fashion Council and was awarded a CBE in 2015 for services to the British fashion industry. Matthew, now 45, has recently completed a UEFA ‘B’ coaching licence with a view to getting involved in academy coaching in the future.
Referee
Saturday’s referee is Kevin Friend. The Leicester-based official has been involved in top-flight matches since 2009 and 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 last took charge of the Hammers in February for our 4-0 home defeat to Manchester City. He 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
Slaven Bilic is without Winston Reid, Angelo Ogbonna, Aaron Cresswell, Pedro Obiang and Gokhan Tore. Andy Carroll is unlikely to play the 90 minutes after feeling a groin injury at the Emirates so Diafra Sakho, another who is unlikely to be able to last the full game, could start. Andre Ayew could line up against his former club, with Robert Snodgrass still struggling for form. Mark Noble is one yellow card away from receiving a two-match ban – he has to get through Saturday’s game to reach the cut-off point and thereby avoid a suspension.
Swansea City right-back Angel Rangel, midfielder Leon Britton and winger Nathan Dyer are all out while striker Fernando Llorente is a doubt. Jordan Ayew, signed from Aston Villa in January, could face his brother Andre.
Possible West Ham United XI: Randolph; Byram, Fonte, Collins, Masuaku; Kouyate, Noble; Ayew, Lanzini, Antonio; Sakho.
Possible Swansea City XI: Fabianski; Naughton, Mawson, Fernandez, Olsson; Carroll, Cork, Fer; Routledge, Ayew, Sigurdsson.
Enjoy the game – Come On You Irons!