Blast from the past
West Ham United have met Cheltenham Town just once before in our history, also in the League Cup second round. The Hammers emerged victorious from that tie between the two clubs with a 2-1 win at the Boleyn Ground on 27th August 2013.
Ellie Goulding was number one with ‘Burn’ and Matt Damon topped the UK box office in Elysium as 23,440 were in attendance at Upton Park. The Hammers had picked up four points from their opening two Premier League matches, beating Cardiff 2-0 at home and drawing 0-0 at Newcastle. Manager Sam Allardyce gave debuts to summer signings Adrian and Razvan Rat as well as Academy product Leo Chambers, while Ravel Morrison made his first start in claret and blue.
West Ham’s Matthew Taylor and Cheltenham’s Matt Richards had both gone close with early free-kicks before Hammers’ French international midfielder Alou Diarra had to be stretchered off after 34 minutes with a damaged anterior cruciate ligament that would keep him out of action for almost four months. Morrison was then booked for diving before he legitimately won a free-kick three minutes before half-time, which was sumptuously converted by Ricardo Vaz Te.
Morrison (pictured above) doubled the lead himself just 40 seconds into the second half, twisting and turning the Town defenders on the edge of the penalty area before placing a low right-footed effort just inside Scott Brown’s post. Richards converted a penalty conceded by Adrian for a foul on Jermaine McGlashan just before the hour mark to give Mark Yates’ men hope but the Hammers secured their passage to the third round.
The Hammers would march on to knock out Cardiff, Burnley and Tottenham before being painfully beaten 9-0 over two legs by eventual 2014 League Cup winners Manchester City at the semi-final stage. Of the 36 players involved in the matchday squads for this fixture just four years ago, only one remains as a player at their respective club – Irons goalkeeper Adrian. The Spanish stopper would be named runner-up in the Hammer of the Year voting for 2013/14, with Mark Noble claiming the main prize for the second time.
West Ham United: Adrian, Leo Chambers, James Tomkins, George McCartney, Razvan Rat, Alou Diarra (Mohamed Diame), Jack Collison, Matthew Taylor, Joe Cole (Stewart Downing), Ravel Morrison, Ricardo Vaz Te.
Cheltenham Town: Scott Brown, Craig Braham-Barrett, Ryan Inniss, Steve Elliott, Keith Lowe, Matt Richards, Russell Penn (Ashley Vincent), Jason Taylor, Jermaine McGlashan, Sam Deering (Byron Harrison), Terry Gornell (Zack Kotwica).
Club Connections
Michail Antonio made his Football League debut whilst on loan at Cheltenham from Reading. Alex Pike, who played in West Ham’s Under-23 victory over Tottenham on Monday, played five games for Cheltenham on loan earlier this year. Others to have represented both clubs include:
Midfielders: Josh Payne, Danny Whitehead, David Noble, Grant McCann.
Striker: Bert Hawkins.
In addition, Martin Allen played for the Hammers before going on to manage the Robins.
Today’s focus is on a former West Ham United striker who went on to manage Cheltenham. Bobby Gould was born on the 12th June 1946 in Coventry and began his career with his hometown club before moving to Arsenal for £90,000 in February 1968. He joined Wolves in June 1970 but moved to Black Country rivals West Brom just 15 months later. He signed for Bristol City in December 1972 before his move to east London.
Gould joined Ron Greenwood’s West Ham United in November 1973 for £80,000 with the Hammers badly struggling in the bottom three of the First Division. He made his debut against one of his former clubs, Arsenal, on 24th November 1973 in a 3-1 defeat at the Boleyn Ground. Gould scored his first Hammers goal in a 3-1 defeat at Birmingham on 15th December 1973 and notched another in a 4-2 win at Chelsea on Boxing Day 1973. His first goal at Upton Park arrived on New Year’s Day 1974 in another 4-2 win, this time over Norwich. Gould’s last goal of 1973/74 came at Manchester City in a 2-1 defeat on 20th April.
The hard-working striker bagged a hat-trick in a 6-0 League Cup second round replay win over Tranmere at the Boleyn on 18th September 1974 and followed that with a brace in a 6-2 home win over Leicester three days later. Strikes in successive away games at Coventry and Everton in October secured 1-1 draws before he fired the fifth and final goal against former club Wolves in a 5-2 home win on 16th November 1974. Two more goals followed before Christmas, one in a 2-1 home win over Leeds and another in a 1-1 draw at Chelsea. Gould got the Hammers’ ultimately triumphant FA Cup campaign off to a flyer by scoring in the 2-1 win at Southampton in the third round but would be ruled out for seven weeks, although he did score in his comeback game at Wolves in a 3-1 defeat. Another goal on the road came a month later at Sheffield United in a 3-2 loss but nine games without a goal at the end of the season cost Gould his place in the FA Cup Final team which defeated Fulham 2-0 – Gould was an unused substitute. His day in the Wembley sun was yet to come…
Gould, who used to conduct the Boleyn Ground crowd during renditions of ’I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles’, put that disappointment behind him and scored at Stoke on the opening day of 1975/76 in a 2-1 win. Injury struck again and he would be out of the side for two months – his hard work building back to fitness paid dividends when he bagged the winner in a 2-1 triumph over Manchester United at Upton Park on 25th October 1975, his final goal in claret and blue. Gould played his final match as a Hammer in a 2-1 defeat at Derby on 15th November 1975 – he had joined the club when they were in the bottom two of the First Division and he left almost two years later with the club enjoying FA Cup holder status and sitting fifth in the top flight. Gould had played a significant part in lifting team spirit during his time at the club and departed having scored 19 goals in 62 appearances.
Five of Gould’s 19 West Ham goals can be viewed in my video below – his first strike for the club at Birmingham, the fifth in the 5-2 win over former club Wolves, the FA Cup third round header at Southampton, his goal at Sheffield United and his winner against Manchester United.
Gould returned to Wolves in December 1975 for £30,000. He moved on to Bristol Rovers in October 1977 and had spells with Norwegian club Aalesunds and back in England with Hereford before hanging up his boots. He became Geoff Hurst’s assistant at Chelsea and took caretaker control when Hurst was sacked at the end of the 1980/81 season. He had two spells as boss at former club Bristol Rovers with a period in charge back where it all began at Coventry sandwiched in between. He became manager of Wimbledon in 1987 and led them to an unlikely FA Cup fairytale when they won the trophy in 1988, defeating Liverpool in the Final and making up for Gould’s non-appearance back in 1975. He went on to manage another former club, West Brom, before returning to Coventry in 1992 to lead them into the Premier League era. International management followed with a four-year spell in charge of Wales from 1995 to 1999. He returned to club management with Cardiff in 2000.
Gould’s final full-time managerial post came in February 2003 when he took over at Division Two strugglers Cheltenham Town. With 20 games of the season remaining, Gould was faced with the task of pulling the club out of the relegation zone and preventing an immediate return to the Third Division. Despite all his experience he was unable to save the Robins from the drop and Town went straight back down. The 2003/04 season did not begin well for the Robins, who were lying in 19th place in the table after 14 games when Gould handed in his resignation following a run of six defeats in seven games. His departure came shortly after Cheltenham’s 2-0 home defeat to Rochdale on 18th October 2003, almost ten months after his arrival at Whaddon Road.
Gould has since had brief spells with Peterborough and Weymouth. Now 71, he is a regular on TalkSport Radio and occasionally appears on BBC Radio 5Live’s Fighting Talk. His elder son Jonathan was a goalkeeper at Coventry, Bradford, Celtic and Preston (amongst other clubs), while younger son Richard is Chief Executive of Surrey County Cricket Club. Bobby’s grandson Matt is a goalkeeper for Stourbridge in the Northern Premier League Premier Division.
Referee
Wednesday’s referee will be West Midlands-based Oliver Langford, who will take on his second ever Hammers appointment – his only other match involving West Ham was the 4-1 win at Blackpool in February 2012. He sent off Robert Green, resulting in midfielder Henri Lansbury having to take over in goal. Green’s red card was later rescinded with Sam Allardyce saying Langford had bowed to pressure from Blackpool’s players after Green’s challenge on Roman Bednar.
Langford has refereed five matches so far in 2017/18 – three in the Championship, one in League One and Bristol City’s 5-0 home win over Plymouth in the League Cup first round. He has dished out 11 yellow cards in those five games and awarded two penalties.
Possible line-ups
Cheltenham Town manager Gary Johnson could give a first start to summer signing Kevin Dawson who was forced to miss the first three games of the season with a thigh injury but made his debut from the bench in Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at Carlisle. Dawson was in Johnson’s Yeovil side that played Manchester United at Huish Park in the FA Cup three seasons ago, with the Red Devils winning 2-0. Johnson favoured a 5-3-2 formation throughout pre-season, but has switched to 4-4-2 since the second half at Morecambe on the opening day of the campaign. The Robins currently sit 20th out of 24 teams in League Two – they lost 2-1 at Morecambe, beat Crawley 1-0 at home but most recently lost 3-0 at Carlisle on Saturday. Swansea’s Under-21 side beat them 2-1 at Whaddon Road in the Checkatrade Trophy last week. The Robins reached the second round of the League Cup by defeating League One Oxford 4-3 after extra-time at the Kassam Stadium.
West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic could hand starts to Adrian, Sam Byram and James Collins. Saed Haksabanovic was omitted from the Under-23 side which beat Tottenham on Monday so could be in line for a place in the first team squad tonight. Cheikhou Kouyate is reportedly part of the travelling party but Robert Snodgrass, Manuel Lanzini and Andy Carroll are unlikely to be risked. Winston Reid is definitely ruled out through injury and Marko Arnautovic is suspended. Michail Antonio only made his first team return on Saturday so is unlikely to play a full game against his old club.
Possible Cheltenham Town XI: Flatt; Grimes, Forster, Boyle, Cranston; Winchester, Atangana, Dawson, Sellars; Eisa, Holman.
Possible West Ham United XI: Adrian; Byram, Fonte, Collins, Masuaku; Rice, Obiang; Fernandes, Ayew, Haksabanovic; Sakho.
Enjoy the game – Come On You Irons!