Blast from the past
Easter Monday, 6th April 1953 – Winston Churchill was Prime Minister, The Stargazers were number one with ‘Broken Wings’, the BBC introduced its iconic Watch with Mother brand for children’s programming and West Ham United secured a 3-2 Second Division victory over Fulham in front of 19,270 at Craven Cottage.
Legendary Hammers left-back Noel Cantwell made his league debut in this match, the Irons’ third over the Easter period – the Hammers had been defeated 2-1 by the Cottagers at Upton Park on Good Friday and lost 4-1 away to Swansea on Easter Saturday. The match was also 33-year-old Geordie right-back Ernie Devlin’s 70th and final league appearance for the club – he had made his debut in May 1947. Indeed, of the Hammers side that day, four hailed from the North East (Devlin, Southren, Dixon and Hooper) and three from Ireland (Cantwell, McGowan and O’Farrell).
This win in West London came courtesy of first goals in claret and blue for Dave Sexton, who scored once on what was the day of his 23rd birthday, and 23-year-old Tommy Dixon (pictured), who bagged a brace. Geordie centre-forward Dixon had only made his league debut two days previously in the defeat at Swansea and would go on to be the Hammers’ top scorer the following season, 1953/54, with 19 goals in 32 matches. He was also the first player to score for West Ham in a floodlit first team match at Upton Park, ten days after his double against Fulham, in a friendly match against First Division Tottenham. An Aircraftman in the RAF, Dixon had never played football before when an officer asked him to play left-back for the unit team while in Singapore in 1951. He passed away on 6th February 2014 at the age of 84.
Irish centre-forward Freddie Kearns would be the Hammers’ top scorer for the season with 12 goals from 23 appearances. Ted Fenton’s Hammers went on to finish the 1952/53 Second Division season in 14th place, while Bill Dodgin’s Fulham ended up eighth. Sheffield United topped the Second Division, Arsenal won the First Division title and Blackpool won the FA Cup in the ‘Matthews Final’.
West Ham United: Ernie Gregory, Ernie Devlin, Noel Cantwell, Danny McGowan, Malcolm Allison, Frank O’Farrell, Tommy Southren, Dave Sexton, Tommy Dixon, Jimmy Andrews, Harry Hooper.
Club Connections
Ryan Fredericks is unavailable for the trip to his former club. Scott Parker played for both clubs and is currently assistant manager at Craven Cottage. A decent number of players join the pair in representing West Ham United and Fulham over the years. These include:
Goalkeepers: Bill Biggar, Jan Lastuvka, Tony Parks.
Defenders: Paul Kelly, Bobby Moore, George Horler, Tony Gale, George Redwood, Kevin Lock, Jack Hebden, Rufus Brevett, John Paintsil, Paul Konchesky, Ian Pearce, Wayne Bridge, Jon Harley, Alan Stephenson, Andy Melville.
Midfielders: Luis Boa Morte, Dick Richards, George Carter, Papa Bouba Diop, Ray Houghton, Fergus Hunt.
Strikers: Johnny ‘Budgie’ Byrne, Brian Dear, Alf Harwood, Jack Fletcher, Roger Cross, Iain Dowie, Fred Harrison, Billy Brown, Archie Macaulay, Danny Shea, Kenny McKay, Leroy Rosenior, Bobby Zamora, Mladen Petric.
This week’s focus though is on a player who spent a couple of months with West Ham before later playing for Fulham. Alexander Davidson (known as Bill) was born in West Lothian, Scotland on 22nd September 1878. He started his career with Scottish side Third Lanark before attracting the attention of English clubs. Bill moved to Glossop North End in November 1899, with a low point arriving when he was suspended for one month for striking two Nottingham Forest players after a match at the City Ground on 13th January 1900. He joined Manchester City, then Reading and it was from the Elm Park club that he joined the Hammers in December 1902.
Described as “a fearless player but rather erratic”, centre-forward Davidson (pictured) made his Hammers debut in a 2-1 home defeat to Southampton on Christmas Day 1902 at the Memorial Grounds. He scored his first goal for the Irons in his fourth match, a 3-0 home win over Wellingborough in the Southern League First Division on 10th January 1903, and scored again in a 3-2 home win over Northampton two weeks later. He made his final appearance for the club in a 1-0 home win over Tottenham on 14th February 1903. After two goals in nine appearances for West Ham United, Davidson moved to Luton in February 1903 after just two months in East London.
Davidson moved on again, signing for Fulham for the 1903/04 season, making two appearances without scoring. He went on to represent New Brompton (now known as Gillingham), Kilmarnock, Aberdeen, Stockport, Atherton Church House, Bolton, Wigan Town, Nelson and finally Macclesfield. Bill Davidson passed away between October and December 1929 at the age of 51.
Referee
Saturday’s referee will be Mike Dean; 2018/19 is Dean’s 19th as a Premier League referee. Since West Ham United achieved promotion back to the top flight in 2012 Dean has refereed 22 of our league matches, officiating in nine wins for the Hammers, seven draws and six defeats.
Dean refereed our final match at the Boleyn when we famously triumphed 3-2 over Manchester United. His decision to send off Sofiane Feghouli just 15 minutes into our 2-0 defeat to the Red Devils in January 2017 was later rescinded. Dean’s three Hammers appointments last season were the 3-2 win over Tottenham in the League Cup fourth round at Wembley in October, the 2-1 defeat at Manchester City in December, our 1-1 Premier League draw with Tottenham in January. He most recently refereed our goalless home draw with Chelsea in September.
Possible line-ups
Fulham are without the suspended Andre Zambo Anguissa, while Calum Chambers, Kevin McDonald and Floyd Ayite are injury doubts.
West Ham United will be without Ryan Fredericks, Winston Reid, Carlos Sanchez, Jack Wilshere, Manuel Lanzini, Andriy Yarmolenko and Marko Arnautovic, while Lucas Perez is a doubt. Pablo Zabaleta is one yellow card away from a one-match suspension.
Possible Fulham XI: Rico; Fosu-Mensah, Ream, Mawson, Bryan; Chambers, Seri, Cairney; Schurrle, Sessegnon; Mitrovic.
Possible West Ham United XI: Fabianski; Zabaleta, Balbuena, Diop, Masuaku; Snodgrass, Rice, Noble, Anderson; Chicharito, Carroll.
Enjoy the game – Up The Hammers!