Blast from the past
In today’s preview, we travel back to 8th October 1927: Mercedes Gleitzer had become the first British woman to swim the English Channel the day before, James Bond actor Sir Roger Moore was born six days later and West Ham United beat Burnley 2-0 in front of 27,467 at Upton Park.
The Hammers went into the match in second place in the First Division table having won five, drawn one and lost one of their opening seven fixtures. 26-year-old centre-forward Viv Gibbins (pictured) was the Irons’ two-goal hero – Gibbins was a schoolmaster who had appeared for the Hammers as an amateur since 1923 but decided to play permanently for West Ham United at the start of this 1927/28 season while still retaining his amateur status. He retired from his post as headmaster at Harold Road School in the early 1970s and remained an occasional visitor to Upton Park. Viv died in Herne Bay on 21st November 1979 at the age of 78.
The victory was West Ham’s sixth in their opening eight games and moved the club to the top of the First Division. Typically inconsistent, the Hammers would lose seven of their next eight matches, including a 7-0 loss at Everton, a 5-3 defeat at Tottenham and a 5-4 home defeat to Middlesbrough – both Tottenham and Middlesbrough would be relegated at the end of the season. In a topsy-turvy season, a brief recovery in early spring sent the Irons back into the top six by the end of March but the club would fail to win any of its final seven games.
Syd King’s West Ham would go on to finish 17th in a 1927/28 campaign that saw Jimmy Ruffell finish as the club’s top scorer with 19 goals from 41 appearances. Burnley finished level on points with, but two places below, the Irons – both clubs finished only one point clear of relegated Tottenham. Everton won the league and Blackburn won the FA Cup.
West Ham United: Ted Hufton, Billy Henderson, Jack Hebden, Jimmy Collins, Jim Barrett, Albert Cadwell, Tommy Yews, Stan Earle, Viv Gibbins, Jimmy Loughlin, Jimmy Ruffell.
Club Connections
Joe Hart returns to West Ham United for the first time since completing his loan spell last season. A small collection of players join him in having turned out for the Hammers and the Clarets. They include:
Goalkeepers: Tommy Hampson, Herman Conway and Frank Birchenough.
Defenders: David Unsworth, Tyrone Mears, Joe Gallagher, Jack Tresadern, Jon Harley and Mitchell Thomas.
Midfielders: Junior Stanislas, Reg Attwell, Matt Taylor and Luke Chadwick.
Strikers: Alan Taylor, Bill Jenkinson, Sam Jennings, Walter Pollard, Ian Wright, Ian Moore and Zavon Hines.
John Bond played for the Hammers and managed the Clarets.
Today’s focus, though, falls on a player who spent a short spell at Burnley before ending his career with Thames Ironworks. Tommy Dunn was born in Falkirk, Scotland on 2nd June 1873 and began his career at First Division Wolves in 1891. He was a member of the Wolves team which was defeated 2-1 in the 1896 FA Cup Final by The Wednesday at Crystal Palace and was equally at home in either of the full-back berths. He signed for Burnley later in 1896 and made seven appearances for the club in the top flight, although the Clarets would be relegated at the end of the 1896/97 season. Dunn left Burnley, dropping down to the Southern League First Division to sign for Chatham Town.
Thames Ironworks signed the 25-year-old Dunn (pictured) in the 1898/99 season and he made his debut in a 4-1 home win over Wycombe in the Southern League Second Division on 14th January 1899. He played in the final 13 games of the 1898/99 campaign and was not on the losing side in any of these 13 matches – the unbeaten run included an 8-1 win against Chesham and a 10-0 victory over Maidenhead. The Irons would win the 1898/99 Southern League Second Division title by nine clear points. At the end of the season, test matches were held between the bottom two clubs in Division One and the top club in both the London Division Two and the South-West Division Two. Dunn played in Thames Ironworks’ Test Match against Sheppey United, which was drawn 1-1, leading to Sheppey remaining in Division One and Thames Ironworks joining them.
Dunn’s Football League experience and ability would no doubt have been crucial to the side and he made 29 appearances as the Irons embarked on their first Southern League First Division campaign. He missed only six Southern League games and was an ever-present in the club’s FA Cup run – the Irons disposed of Royal Engineers (6-0), Grays (4-0), Sheppey (4-2), Dartford (7-0) and New Brompton (now known as Gillingham, 2-0) before being beaten 2-1 by Millwall at the Memorial Grounds in the Fifth Qualifying Round. With Brighton United and Cowes both resigning from the Southern League midway through the season, Thames Ironworks’ 14th-placed finish out of the 15 remaining teams saw them enter another Test Match, this time against Fulham who had finished second in the Southern League Second Division. The match was played at a neutral venue, White Hart Lane, on 30th April 1900 – the Irons won 5-1 to retain their place in the Southern League First Division. It was to be Dunn’s 42nd and final appearance for Thames Ironworks; he left the club before the decision was taken to fully embrace professionalism and become West Ham United.
Dunn retired from football at the age of 26 and returned to his native Scotland where he became an undertaker. He died aged 65, on the 24th June 1938.
Referee
Saturday’s referee will be Roger East; the Wiltshire-based official has been taking charge of Premier League fixtures since 2012 but has only taken charge of five previous West Ham matches in the top flight, those being the 1-1 home draw with Stoke in April 2015, the 3-2 home defeat to Leicester in March 2017, the 0-0 draw with Everton the following month, our 1-0 home win over Swansea in September 2017 and, most recently, our 3-1 defeat at Brighton in February.
The 53-year-old has also refereed the Hammers in the FA Cup, for the fourth round replay win over Liverpool in February 2016 and for the 2-1 quarter-final replay defeat to Manchester United in April of the same year. He also sent off Portsmouth’s Liam Lawrence and West Ham’s Frederic Piquionne in the Irons’ 4-3 home win over Pompey in September 2011.
Possible line-ups
West Ham United’s squad is again struggling with injuries – Winston Reid, Carlos Sanchez, Jack Wilshere, Manuel Lanzini, Andriy Yarmolenko and Andy Carroll are in the treatment room, while Mark Noble sits out the second match of his three-game suspension.
Burnley are without Nick Pope, Ben Gibson and Stephen Ward but Jack Cork and Aaron Lennon should be available.
Looking ahead to our next match against Huddersfield, both centre-back Zanka and central midfielder Philip Billing are one yellow card away from missing our trip to the John Smith’s Stadium – the Terriers face Fulham at home on Monday. West Ham’s Robert Snodgrass is also a booking away from a one-match suspension.
Possible West Ham United XI: Fabianski; Zabaleta, Balbuena, Diop, Masuaku; Rice, Obiang, Snodgrass; Diangana, Anderson; Arnautovic.
Possible Burnley XI: Hart; Lowton, Tarkowski, Mee, Taylor; Cork, Defour; Gudmundsson, Hendrick, Brady; Wood.
Enjoy the game – Up The Hammers!