Blast from the past
Back in 1967/68, West Ham United visited Leicester City on the 30th December 1967, beating the Foxes 4-2 at Filbert Street in front of 24,589. This away victory came just four days after a Boxing Day win by the same scoreline at Upton Park. Harold Wilson was Prime Minister, The Beatles were number one with ‘Hello, Goodbye’ and Half A Sixpence was in UK cinemas.
The Hammers took the lead when Martin Peters found Trevor Brooking who struck left-footed beyond 18-year-old future England goalkeeper Peter Shilton. The Foxes would turn the game on its head by half-time though, with Bobby Svarc and the late Frank Large scoring for the hosts.
24-year-old Brian Dear (pictured) followed up his hat-trick in the Boxing Day fixture against the same opposition by scoring twice in the second half – his first, the equaliser, was a header from a right-wing Geoff Hurst cross. Johnny Sissons gave the Irons the lead for the second time, scoring direct from a left-wing corner to embarrass Shilton. Dear’s second was a thumping left-foot strike with three minutes to go which sealed the points and moved the Hammers into 14th place. The goals from this match can be seen in the video below.
By the end of the 1967/68 season, Manchester United had recorded their first European Cup triumph, Manchester City won the First Division title, West Brom won the FA Cup and West Ham United claimed 12th place in the top flight. Bobby Moore was voted Hammer of the Year, with Brooking runner-up. Hurst was the Irons’ top goalscorer with 25 goals from 44 matches.
Leicester City: Peter Shilton, Peter Rodrigues, John Sjoberg, David Nish, Willie Bell, Alan Tewley, Bobby Roberts, Len Glover, Bobby Svarc, Frank Large, Davie Gibson (Alan Woollett).
West Ham United: Bobby Ferguson, Billy Bonds, Bobby Moore, John Cushley, Frank Lampard, Ronnie Boyce, Martin Peters, Trevor Brooking, Johnny Sissons, Geoff Hurst, Brian Dear.
Club Connections
Players who have represented both the Hammers and the Foxes include:
Goalkeepers: George Hebden, Colin Mackleworth.
Defenders: Gary Charles, Chris Powell, Dickie Pudan, Rufus Brevett, Paul Konchesky, Dai Jones, Matthew Upson, Clive Clarke, Billy Oakes, Fred Milnes, John Paintsil.
Midfielders: Andy Impey, Nolberto Solano, Franz Carr, Sid Bishop.
Strikers: David Connolly, Albert Carnelly, Mike Newell, Brian Deane, Keith Robson, Paul Kitson, David Speedie, Bertie Lyon, Norman Proctor, Les Ferdinand, David Kelly, Tony Cottee, Jimmy Quinn.
Martin Allen, Frank O’Farrell and Jimmy Bloomfield have played for the Hammers and managed the Foxes.
Another ex-Hammers player to represent Leicester is Shaun Newton. Born in Camberwell on the 20th August 1975, Newton started his career with Alan Curbishley’s Charlton in 1993. He won promotion to the Premier League twice with the Addicks, in 1998 and 2000, before joining Wolves in 2001. He was again part of a promotion-winning side in 2003 but the Molineux side were relegated straight back to the second tier at the end of 2003/04.
A powerful, enterprising right-winger with a high work rate and standing at 5’8, the 29-year-old Newton signed for Alan Pardew’s West Ham United on a short-term contract in March 2005 for an initial nominal fee of £10,000. He made his debut in a 3-1 defeat at Reading on 12th March 2005 and made 14 appearances over the remaining weeks of 2004/05, winning his fourth promotion to the Premier League as the Hammers beat Preston in the Play-Off Final. This victory saw Newton’s transfer fee rise to £125,000 and he was rewarded with a two-year contract.
The signing of Yossi Benayoun meant that two-thirds of Newton’s 30 appearances in 2005/06 were as a substitute. He scored his only goal for the club in a 1-0 home win over Manchester City on 15th April 2006. Newton played the full 90 minutes of the Hammers’ 2-1 FA Cup third round win at Norwich and he appeared from the bench in the 1-0 semi-final victory over Middlesbrough at Villa Park. He would not, however, make the squad for the Final against Liverpool.
In July 2006, Newton was suspended for seven months after testing positive for cocaine. The 30-year-old provided the positive test following the aforementioned FA Cup semi-final against Middlesbrough in April, with the FA dating the suspension from 20th May. Newton made his return as a substitute in the 6-0 defeat at Reading on New Year’s Day 2007, by which time his former Charlton boss Curbishley had taken over as manager from Pardew. He made five appearances under Curbs, with his final outing for the Hammers coming in a 4-0 defeat at former club Charlton on 24th February 2007. Newton made 49 appearances for West Ham United, scoring one goal. His only strike for the club can be seen in my video below.
Newton joined Rob Kelly’s Leicester on loan in March 2007, making the move permanent on a free transfer at the end of the 2006/07 campaign. He scored his only goal for the club after Nigel Worthington had taken caretaker control of the club, in a 2-1 home defeat to Birmingham on 17th April 2007.
Former Hammer Martin Allen assumed the managerial reigns at the start of the 2007/08 season but Gary Megson took over after ‘Mad Dog’ had left before the end of August. Megson’s reign was similarly short-lived, with Ian Holloway being named manager of the Foxes in November 2007. Amongst this chaos, the 32-year-old Newton was released by the club in January 2008, having made 19 appearances for the Foxes and scoring one goal. Leicester were relegated to League One four months later.
A spell on trial at Yeovil in the summer of 2008 failed to yield a contract and Newton’s professional football career was over. Newton was found guilty of nine counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice through a fines scam in 2008 and was found guilty of burglary in July 2017, committed when he was “drunk and under the influence of cocaine”. Now 43, he was sentenced to 100 hours’ community service having initially failed to appear in court and being posted in a “police gallery of most wanted suspects”. The judge and jury claimed they had “concerns over Newton’s mental health”.
Referee
The referee on Saturday will be Michael Oliver. Since West Ham United achieved promotion back to the top flight in 2012 Oliver has refereed 13 of our league matches, officiating in three wins for the Hammers, two draws and eight defeats. He most recently refereed the Irons in our 3-1 home win over Manchester United last month.
Oliver was the man in the middle for the Irons’ 2-0 reverse at Chelsea four seasons ago and also sent off Kevin Nolan at Anfield five seasons ago. His only Hammers appointments in 2015/16 were for the 2-1 home victory over Southampton in December and the 4-1 home defeat to Swansea in May. His only games in charge of the Irons in 2016/17 were our 5-0 home defeat to Manchester City in the FA Cup third round and the 2-2 home draw with West Brom in February. He refereed our 1-1 home draw with Stoke in April and, prior to that, our 4-0 defeat at Everton last December and 3-2 home defeat to Tottenham in September 2017, sending off Spurs’ Serge Aurier but failing to award the Hammers a penalty in the dying minutes for a push on Andy Carroll.
Possible line-ups
Leicester City should have Demarai Gray and Jamie Vardy available but Wes Morgan is suspended and Matty James is missing through injury.
For West Ham United, Winston Reid, Carlos Sanchez, Jack Wilshere, Pedro Obiang, Manuel Lanzini, Andriy Yarmolenko and Andy Carroll are definitely out.
Looking ahead to our match against Burnley, Robert Snodgrass is one yellow card away from a one-match suspension. A change to the rules for this season means that the totting up of yellow cards apply only to the competition in which they are received so Snodgrass would be available for the League Cup tie against Tottenham if he was to be booked against Leicester. The rules regarding red cards remain unchanged and affect all domestic competitions.
Possible Leicester City XI: Schmeichel; Pereira, Maguire, Evans, Chilwell; Mendy, Ndidi; Ghezzal, Iheanacho, Maddison; Vardy.
Possible West Ham United XI: Fabianski; Zabaleta, Balbuena, Diop, Cresswell; Rice, Noble, Snodgrass; Diangana, Anderson; Arnautovic.
Enjoy the game – Come On You Irons!