Blast from the past
Allow me to take you back 45 years, to another Good Friday, 20th April 1973. Edward Heath was Prime Minister, Tony Orlando and Dawn were number one with ‘Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree’ and the Ringo Starr-directed Born To Boogie starring T-Rex and Elton John was in UK cinemas.
An 11am kick-off saw West Ham United take on Southampton in front of 33,039 at The Boleyn Ground – it was to be a particularly good Friday for the Hammers and a great one for Bryan ‘Pop’ Robson as the Sunderland-born striker netted a hat-trick to lead West Ham to a 4-3 win over the Saints in the old First Division. Two goals in four minutes early on from Robson put the Hammers in a commanding position but, rather typically, the lead had been thrown away by half-time as Paul Gilchrist scored a brace of his own to level the match.
Robson completed his hat-trick in the 66th minute, leaping high to head in a Trevor Brooking cross and restore the hosts’ lead. Brooking turned from goal-maker to goal-taker to effectively clinch the game for the Irons in the 83rd minute, but there was still time for Mick Channon to net a further consolation for the visitors in this seven-goal thriller.
The win put West Ham level with Ipswich in joint-fourth place, with three matches to play. It was to prove the Hammers’ final victory of 1972/73 however, as we closed the campaign with two draws and a defeat. In doing so, West Ham equalled their (at the time) highest-ever position of sixth in a campaign that saw Bobby Moore overtake Jimmy Ruffell’s record number of league appearances for the club, a record that had stood unbeaten since 1936. Southampton finished 13th, Liverpool won the league and Sunderland won the FA Cup.
‘Pop’ Robson, the hat-trick hero against the Saints (pictured with the matchball from the game), finished 1972/73 as the leading goal-scorer in England’s top four divisions, with twenty-eight goals from forty-two appearances, winning him the Adidas-sponsored Golden Boot award. Twenty-six of these goals were from open play, with only two from the penalty spot. He was also, unsurprisingly, that season’s recipient of the Hammer of the Year award, with Brooking runner-up.
West Ham United: Peter Grotier, John McDowell (Bertie Lutton), Kevin Lock, Bobby Moore, Frank Lampard, Billy Bonds, Pat Holland, Trevor Brooking, Clyde Best, Bryan ‘Pop’ Robson, Ted McDougall.
Southampton: Eric Martin, Jim Steele (Billy Beaney), Dave Walker, Paul Bennett, Joe Kirkup, Brian O’Neil, Wayne Talkes, Hugh Fisher, Terry Paine, Mick Channon, Paul Gilchrist.
Club Connections
Michail Antonio welcomes his former club. An array of West Ham United’s good, bad and ugly have also turned out for Southampton:
Goalkeepers: Richard Wright, George Kitchen.
Defenders: Richard Hall, Christian Dailly, Joe Kirkup, Wayne Bridge, Neil Ruddock, Jose Fonte, Bill Adams, Darren Powell, Albie Roles, Horace Glover, Calum Davenport.
Midfielders: Jimmy Carr, Bobby Weale, Luis Boa Morte, Nigel Quashie, Eyal Berkovic, Robbie Slater, Peter Cowper, Paul Allen.
Strikers: Vic Watson, Justin Fashanu, David Speedie, David Connolly, Iain Dowie, Ted MacDougall, Henri Camara, Alex McDonald, Frank Costello, Fred Harrison, Walter Pollard, Arthur Wilson, Jimmy Harris, Jack Foster.
In addition, George Kay played for the Hammers and managed the Saints while Harry Redknapp and Alan Pardew have managed both clubs.
Today’s focus is on a defender who enjoyed six and a half years with West Ham before later spending a brief loan spell at Southampton. Ian Pearce was born in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk on 7th May 1974. He started his career at Oxted & District before signing for Chelsea during the 1991/92 season. Pearce was part of the England Under-20 team that came third in the 1993 FIFA World Youth Championship in Australia, playing in all six matches and scoring one goal. He was capped three times for England at Under-21 level in the mid-1990s but would never make the senior side. Pearce moved to Blackburn in October 1993, scoring the winning goal for Rovers in a 2-1 win at West Ham in April 1994 before winning the Premier League title the following season.
The 23-year-old Pearce joined Harry Redknapp’s upwardly-mobile West Ham United for a fee of £2.3m in September 1997. He made his Hammers debut in a 1-0 home defeat to Newcastle on 20th September 1997 and quickly forged a young, promising central defensive trio alongside Rio Ferdinand and fellow new boy David Unsworth. Pearce scored his first goal for his boyhood club in a 1-1 FA Cup quarter-final draw at eventual Double winners Arsenal on 8th March 1998. He scored his first league goal in claret and blue, and his first at Upton Park, in a 3-0 win over Leeds twenty years ago today, on 30th March 1998, a match which saw Pearce playing at right wing-back. Pearce made 39 appearances in 1997/98 as the Hammers finished eighth (their highest position for 12 years) and reached the quarter-finals in both cup competitions.
Pearce made 36 appearances and was runner-up to Shaka Hislop in the Hammer of the Year voting in 1998/99 as the Irons finished fifth and qualified for the InterToto Cup. He scored in a 2-1 home win over Nottingham Forest on 13th February 1999 and bagged his second of the campaign in his next home game, a 2-0 win over former club Blackburn two weeks later. Pearce played in both legs of the InterToto Cup semi-final against Heerenveen in the summer of 1999 before injuring knee ligaments 37 minutes into the opening day of the Premier League season in a 1-0 win over Tottenham – he was to be ruled out for 14 months.
Making his comeback in October 2000 in a 1-0 home win over Newcastle, Pearce made 17 appearances in 2000/01, scoring his only goal of the season in a 4-1 home win over Manchester City on 11th November 2000. He was injured again in April 2001 and would be out for ten months, making only nine appearances under new manager Glenn Roeder in 2001/02 – he did, however, score a stunning and dramatic last-minute equaliser at White Hart Lane on 13th April 2002, lashing home a left-footed piledriver from distance. His second goal of the campaign was the final act of the campaign, a late winner in a 2-1 home triumph against Bolton on the final day of the season.
Pearce made 33 appearances in 2002/03 as the Hammers were ultimately relegated from the top flight. He was sent off in a 3-2 defeat at Tottenham on 15th September 2002 for a professional foul on future Hammer Robbie Keane and was forced to play as an emergency striker in a winter which saw the Hammers deprived of Paolo Di Canio and Frederic Kanoute. He scored two goals during his stint up front, in a 2-2 draw at Middlesbrough on 7th December 2002 and in a 1-1 home draw with Bolton two weeks later. Pearce was red carded for the second time in a crucial and infamous 1-0 defeat at Bolton on 19th April 2003 – his late tackle on Pierre-Yves Andre led to a melee and, minutes later when the match had ended, a subsequent fracas in the tunnel.
The first half of the 2003/04 First Division campaign saw Pearce make 26 appearances under three different managers – Roeder, caretaker Trevor Brooking and Alan Pardew. His final goal for the club was the winner in a 3-2 home win over Sunderland on 13th December 2003, completing a Hammers comeback from 2-0 down. He made his last appearance in claret and blue in a 2-1 home defeat to Preston on 10th January 2004 – after scoring ten goals in 163 appearances for West Ham United, the 29-year-old Pearce returned to the Premier League, signing for Fulham with £1m and Andy Melville heading the other way to east London. All of Pearce’s ten goals in claret and blue can be viewed in my video below:
After just over four years with the Cottagers, the 33-year-old Pearce joined Championship side Southampton on a month’s loan in February 2008. His time at St Mary’s was disrupted by injury and his sole appearance for the club under new manager Nigel Pearson came in a 1-1 draw at Scunthorpe on 22nd February 2008 – Pearce conceded the penalty from which Scunthorpe scored.
Pearce returned to the club where it all began for him, Oxted & District, in the Surrey South Eastern Combination League in August 2008. He signed for Isthmian League Premier Division outfit Kingstonian in August 2009 but joined Lincoln as player-assistant manager to former Blackburn team-mate Chris Sutton two months later. He left when Sutton resigned in September 2010 and returned to Kingstonian in March 2011; he also played for Surrey-based Lingfield later that year. Pearce, now 43, joined Brighton as a scout in 2014.
Referee
The referee on Saturday will be Jonathan Moss. The Yorkshire-based official has sent off a player in six of his last ten appointments involving the Hammers – the 4-3 defeat to Bournemouth in August 2015 saw Carl Jenkinson sent off, while the 2-1 win over Chelsea last October saw Nemanja Matic dismissed (then-Blues manager Jose Mourinho was also sent to the stands). Moss issued a red card to Jordan Ayew of Aston Villa in February with the Hammers going on to win 2-0 while, going further back, Burnley’s Michael Duff was also sent off by Moss in our 1-0 home win over the Clarets in May 2015.
Moss also issued a red card to Cheikhou Kouyate in the 5-1 FA Cup fifth round win at Blackburn in February, although this was later rescinded. Arguably the 47-year-old’s most controversial Hammers appointment was the 2-2 draw at Leicester in April 2016 when he sent off Jamie Vardy and awarded two penalties, the second arriving deep into stoppage time as the Foxes rescued a precious point. Moss took charge of the corresponding fixture last season when Southampton won 3-0 in east London. Moss’ most recent matches in charge of the Hammers were December’s goalless draw with Arsenal at London Stadium and our 4-1 win at Huddersfield in January.
Possible line-ups
David Moyes is without Sam Byram, James Collins, Winston Reid, Pedro Obiang and Andy Carroll, while Manuel Lanzini is a doubt. Arthur Masuaku returns from his six-match suspension for spitting at an opponent, while Cheikhou Kouyate is expected to recover from illness.
New Southampton manager Mark Hughes is likely to have Ryan Bertand, Steven Davis and Charlie Austin available, with no expected injury concerns.
Possible West Ham United XI: Hart; Zabaleta, Rice, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Masuaku; Kouyate, Noble, Mario; Antonio, Arnautovic.
Possible Southampton XI: McCarthy; Soares, Hoedt, Stephens, Bertrand; Redmond, Lemina, Davis, Boufal; Carrillo, Gabbiadini.
Enjoy the game – Come On You Irons!