Welcome to the latest in a series of articles designed for international matches – a look back at former Hammers players who wore the Three Lions of England.
Today, as England prepare to face Spain in their first ever Nations League match, we look back at a former Hammers striker – Paul Goddard. ‘Sarge’, as he was known after his Boys’ Brigade days, was born in Harlington on 12th October 1959 and started his career at Queens Park Rangers, making his debut in April 1978 in the same team as future Hammers team-mate Phil Parkes. He scored 16 goals alongside another former Iron, Clive Allen, in 1979/80 before John Lyall spent a club record £800,000 on the England Under-21 striker in August 1980. Goddard made his West Ham league debut at the age of 20 on 16th August 1980 in a 2-1 Second Division defeat to Luton at the Boleyn Ground. He scored his first goal for the club in a 2-0 League Cup second round first leg win at Burnley on 26th August 1980 and made 55 appearances in the 1980/81 season as the Hammers won promotion to the First Division and reached the League Cup Final. He scored 23 goals in his first season, including a strike in the 2-0 League Cup semi-final second leg win over Coventry at Upton Park on 10th February 1981 and a diving header in the League Cup Final replay defeat to Liverpool at Villa Park on 1st April 1981. He also bagged a hat-trick in a 3-0 home win over former club QPR later that month.
Goddard made 46 appearances in 1981/82 as the Hammers returned to top flight football and finished ninth. He scored 17 goals, including a hat-trick in a 4-2 home win over Southampton in September 1981. Ron Greenwood gave ‘Sarge’ his one and only England cap aged 22 in a 1-1 draw against Iceland in Reykjavik. He came on as a 40th-minute substitute for the injured Cyrille Regis with the Three Lions 1-0 down. Goddard, playing alongside Hammers team-mate Alan Devonshire, scored the equaliser after 69 minutes, running on to Glenn Hoddle’s pass to become the first England player to score while playing less than a full match. Despite this debut goal, Goddard was not taken to Spain for the 1982 World Cup.
An eighth-placed finish followed in 1982/83 with ‘Sarge’ scoring 12 goals in 46 matches. 1983/84 was injury-hit for Goddard as he scored two goals in just six appearances; the Hammers finished ninth. The Irons would dip the following season, finishing 16th in 1984/85 but it was a more fruitful season for Goddard personally, as he scored 14 goals in 48 appearances, including a hat-trick in a 4-1 FA Cup third round win over Port Vale at the Boleyn on 5th January 1985.
1985/86 would go down as the finest league season in West Ham United’s history. Goddard started the season partnering Tony Cottee but dislocated his shoulder 31 minutes into the opening day 1-0 defeat at Birmingham. New signing Frank McAvennie, who started that match in an attacking midfield role, took Goddard’s place up front and the Irons went on to record their highest ever finish of third. ‘Sarge’ made just seven appearances, scoring one goal in the 8-1 thrashing of Newcastle on 21st April 1986.
Goddard made five appearances in 1986/87, scoring two goals. His final goal in claret and blue came in a 3-2 League Cup third round win at Watford on 29th October 1986, while his last game as a Hammers player was a 1-0 home win over Everton four days later. After scoring 71 goals in 213 appearances for West Ham United, the 27-year-old moved to Newcastle on 7th November 1986 for a fee of £415,000 – the most the Hammers had ever received for a player at the time. My video below shows 11 of Goddard’s 71 goals for West Ham United, scored against Shrewsbury, Castilla, Poli Timisoara, Bristol Rovers (all 1980), Preston, Coventry, Liverpool, Middlesbrough (all 1981), Manchester United (1982), Newcastle and Watford (both 1986).
Goddard spent 15 months on Tyneside, playing alongside Glenn Roeder, before moving to Derby in a £425,000 deal. He was on the move again a season and a half later, returning to London to sign for Millwall for £800,000 in December 1989. Goddard reunited with John Lyall at Ipswich a little over two years later, moving to Portman Road on a free transfer. He helped Ipswich win promotion to the Premier League for the 1992/93 campaign and was made first team coach by Lyall in the summer of 1994. During the 1994/95 season, he was temporarily caretaker-manager with former team-mate John Wark between the departure of John Lyall and the arrival of George Burley; Goddard went on to become the club’s youth team coach.
Having played alongside him at QPR and Newcastle, Goddard became Glenn Roeder’s assistant manager at West Ham in the summer of 2001. He helped the Hammers to a seventh-placed finish in 2001/02 but the Irons were relegated in 2002/03. The last three matches of that season saw Goddard reunited with former Hammers team-mate Trevor Brooking as the West Ham legend assumed the role of caretaker manager after Roeder fell ill. Goddard left West Ham in January 2004, three months after Alan Pardew took over as manager. Now 58, Goddard was recently known to be living with his family in East Bergholt, Suffolk. He has also worked for the Stellar Group football agency.
England v Spain
England face Spain this weekend in a Nations League match – it will be the 26th meeting between the two nations. The pair met in the 1968 European Championship quarter-finals, with England winning the first leg 1-0 at Wembley on 3rd April 1968. The Beatles were number one with ‘Lady Madonna’, Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier and Katharine Hepburn were in UK cinemas in Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner and Thames Valley Police was formed two days earlier.
Alf Ramsey’s England took the lead six minutes from full-time courtesy of 30-year-old Manchester United legend Bobby Charlton, who thumped home from an indirect free-kick. It was the 44th of his 49 England goals, in the 83rd of his 106 caps. England won the second leg in the Bernabeu 2-1, with Hammer Martin Peters on the scoresheet. The Three Lions were beaten by Yugoslavia in the semi-finals but won the third-place play-off against the Soviet Union. Italy went on to win the tournament.
England: Gordon Banks (Stoke), Cyril Knowles (Tottenham), Jack Charlton (Leeds), Bobby Moore (captain, West Ham), Ray Wilson (Everton), Alan Ball (Everton), Martin Peters (West Ham), Alan Mullery (Tottenham), Bobby Charlton (Man Utd), Roger Hunt (Liverpool), Mike Summerbee (Man City).
Spain: Salvador Sadurni (Barcelona), Inaki Saez (Athletic Bilbao), Gallego (Barcelona), Juan Manuel Canos (Elche), Ignacio Zoco (captain, Real Madrid), Pirri (Real Madrid), Jose Claramunt (Valencia), Amaro Amancio (Real Madrid), Poli (Valencia), Fernando Ansola (Valencia), Ramon Grosso (Real Madrid).
The previous articles in the series are:
Jack Tresadern
Ken Brown
Johnny ‘Budgie’ Byrne
Bobby Moore
Martin Peters
Sir Trevor Brooking
Alan Devonshire
Alvin Martin
Stuart Pearce
Joe Cole
David James
Robert Green