Blast from the past
Tuesday 30th March 1982 – The Goombay Dance Band were number one with ‘Seven Tears’ and West Ham United were ensuring it was the Swans who were sobbing in south Wales as the late Francois van der Elst scored the winner in a 1-0 victory over tomorrow’s opponents Swansea City in front of 20,272 at the Vetch Field.
Belgian attacker van der Elst (pictured above) scored twice for Anderlecht against West Ham as we lost the European Cup Winners’ Cup Final 4-2 in 1976. He signed for the Hammers from the New York Cosmos in January 1982 and this strike at Swansea was his fifth goal in ten games. He scored 17 goals in 70 appearances for the Irons before returning to his homeland to sign for Lokeren. He passed away just over a year ago, on the 11th January 2017 at the age of 62.
John Lyall’s Hammers would finish ninth in the First Division in 1981/82, while Swansea would end the campaign in sixth having led the table more than once in their first season at the top level. Alvin Martin won the second of his three Hammer of the Year awards, with Trevor Brooking voted runner-up. Liverpool won the league and Tottenham won the FA Cup.
West Ham United: Phil Parkes, Ray Stewart, Alvin Martin, Neil Orr, Frank Lampard, Francois van der Elst, Paul Allen, Trevor Brooking, Alan Devonshire, David Cross, Paul Goddard.
Club Connections
Swansea City’s Andre Ayew could face his previous club. 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 and Matthew Rush.
Strikers: Tudor Martin, 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 player who turned out for West Ham before representing Swansea later in his career. Jimmy Carr was an outside-left who was born on 19th December 1893 in Maryhill, Glasgow. He joined Watford in 1908 at the age of 14 and made his Southern League debut as a 16-year-old. The 20-year-old Carr moved to West Ham United in 1914 and made his debut in a 1-1 home draw with Swindon on 26th September 1914. With the perfect build for a winger at 5’7 in height and weighing in at 10st, he scored his only Hammers goal in his sixth appearance, a 2-0 win over Plymouth at Upton Park on 5th December 1914. His ninth and final appearance for the Irons was on the 30th January 1915, in a 1-1 draw at Swindon, the same opposition and result as his debut.
During World War One, Carr was enlisted into the Army as a Private and played as a guest for Portsmouth and Kilmarnock in the Wartime Leagues. After the cessation of hostilities, Carr joined Reading in 1919, spending four years in Berkshire and making over 100 appearances for the club before moving to Southampton (he is pictured during his Reading days). Three years at The Dell (where he would be an FA Cup Semi-Finalist in 1925) were followed by the 32-year-old Carr’s switch to Swansea Town, as they were then known, in May 1926.
Carr scored one goal in seven appearances for the Swans but, with the end of his career approaching, he took the unprecedented step of placing an advertisement in the Athletic News, stating that he would ‘assist a club outside the League in exchange for a business’. Carr was soon playing for Southall and running The Red Lion Hotel in the town. Jimmy Carr passed away in Harrow on 26th June 1980, at the age of 86.
Referee
The referee on Saturday will be Martin Atkinson, who refereed our 1-1 home draw with Leicester in November and was also in charge of our 3-0 home defeat to Brighton in October and our 4-0 opening weekend defeat at Manchester United on 13th August. 2017/18 is Atkinson’s 13th as a Premier League referee. Since West Ham United achieved promotion back to the top flight in 2012 Atkinson has refereed 20 of our league matches, officiating in nine wins for the Hammers, three draws and eight defeats.
Atkinson is pictured above in his most recent Hammers match, our 1-1 home draw with Bournemouth in January. He also refereed the Hammers’ FA Cup quarter-final at Old Trafford in March 2016, when he turned down appeals for a penalty after Marcos Rojo appeared to have tripped Dimitri Payet and failed to spot Bastian Schweinstieger’s block on Darren Randolph as Man Utd equalised late on. He refereed last September’s 4-2 home defeat to Watford and October’s 1-0 win at Crystal Palace, when he controversially sent off Aaron Cresswell for two very harsh yellow cards in quick succession. His other Hammers appointments last season were our 3-1 win at Middlesbrough in January and our 3-0 defeat to Arsenal in April.
Possible line-ups
Swansea City right-back Angel Rangel, midfielders Leroy Fer and Renato Sanches and striker Wilfried Bony are out. The Swans are unbeaten in their last six home games in all competitions, scoring 18 goals in that run.
David Moyes is without the suspended Arthur Masuaku, as well as the injured Pedro Obiang, Edimilson Fernandes and Andy Carroll but Patrice Evra should be available. West Ham have won one and drawn three of their last four trips to the Liberty Stadium.
Possible Swansea City XI: Fabianski; Naughton, Mawson, Bartley, Fernandez, Olsson; Dyer, Carroll, Ki, A Ayew; J Ayew.
Possible West Ham United XI: Adrian; Reid, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Zabaleta, Kouyate, Noble, Lanzini, Antonio; Arnautovic, Chicharito.
Enjoy the game – Come On You Irons!
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