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Dan Coker's Match Preview

Match Preview: West Ham v Fulham

Blast from the past

2nd September 1946 – Clement Attlee was Prime Minister, The Ink Spots were number one with ‘Bless You’, Bee Gee Barry Gibb had been born the day before and Queen frontman Freddie Mercury was born three days later as West Ham United secured a 3-2 Second Division victory over Fulham in front of 28,012 at Upton Park.

This was the Irons’ first home game of the 1946/47 season – the Hammers had been defeated 3-1 at Plymouth on the campaign’s opening day. This win came courtesy of two goals for 31-year-old inside-left Archie Macaulay (pictured) and a further strike from 34-year-old centre-forward Sam Small. Macaulay, a volatile, red-haired Scot, was transferred to the then more glamorous First Division Brentford two months later for a fee of £7,500, having scored 59 goals in 184 appearances for the Hammers since joining from Glasgow Rangers in August 1937 for £6,000. He went on to play for Arsenal and Fulham, and managed Norwich, West Brom and Brighton before later working as a traffic warden in Chelsea. Archie Macaulay died aged 77 on 10th June 1993.

Frank Neary would be the Hammers’ top scorer for the season with 15 goals from just 14 appearances. Charlie Paynter’s Hammers went on to finish the 1946/47 Second Division season in 12th place, while Jack Peart’s Fulham ended up 15th. Manchester City topped the Second Division, Liverpool won the First Division title and Charlton won the FA Cup.

West Ham United: Harry Medhurst, Charlie Bicknell, Ron Cater, Norman Corbett, Dick Walker, Reg Attwell, Terry Woodgate, Almer Hall, Sam Small, Archie Macaulay, Jackie Wood.

Club Connections

Ryan Fredericks welcomes his former club. Scott Parker played for both clubs and is currently assistant manager at Craven Cottage, while recent Fulham loan signing Havard Nordtveit returns to London Stadium. A decent number of players join the trio 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, 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, Bill Davidson.

This week’s focus though is on a player who started his career with Fulham before spending a decade playing for West Ham. Tony Gale was born in Westminster on 19th November 1959 and progressed through the youth ranks at Fulham, having caught the eye with London and Middlesex Schools. Cleaning Rodney Marsh’s boots as an apprentice, he made his first team debut at the age of 16 in a 2-1 defeat at Leyton Orient in the Anglo-Scottish Cup on 11th August 1976. Just a year later, Gale replaced the great Bobby Moore in the Fulham first team, making his league debut in a 1-1 draw against Charlton at Craven Cottage on 20th August 1977. Nearly a third of Gale’s career goals were scored in his first season in league football, as he notched eight in 38 Second Division appearances – he started the season in defence, conceding only one goal in his first six matches, but was moved into midfield by manager Bobby Campbell. Playing alongside George Best, Gale scored six goals in eight games while playing further forward, before returning to defence.

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Campbell appointed Gale as captain at the age of 18 but the Cottagers would be relegated to the Third Division at the end of the 1979/80 season. Now under the management of Malcolm Macdonald, they were promoted back to the second tier two years later. Gale, and Fulham, missed out on a second successive promotion in 1982/83 by a single point and, after a mid-table finish the following season, Gale opted for a move away from Craven Cottage to ensure top-flight football. He had scored 19 goals in 277 league appearances for the club; he had also won one England Under-21 cap in 1982.

The 24-year-old Gale moved to John Lyall’s West Ham United in July 1984 for what would transpire to be a bargain £200,000 fee, which was decided by tribunal. He made his Hammers debut on the opening day of the 1984/85 season in a goalless draw with Ipswich at Upton Park. Gale, a stylish and accomplished centre-half, made 40 appearances in his first season in east London as the Irons finished 16th. 1985/86, however, would go down as the finest league season in West Ham United’s history – establishing a formidable central defensive partnership with skipper Alvin Martin, Gale made 52 appearances as the Irons recorded their highest ever finish of third. No player made more appearances than the classy Gale in that historic season, with Phil Parkes and Mark Ward also making 52 starts (Tony Cottee also made 52 appearances, although one was as a substitute).

The Hammers would drop dramatically in the league in 1986/87, finishing 15th in the First Division. Gale scored three goals in 41 matches, with his first ever strike for the club coming from a free-kick in a 1-0 home win over Coventry on 23rd August 1986, the opening day of the campaign. Having waited two years for his first Hammers goal, his second arrived less than a month later, heading home a Kevin Keen corner past future Hammer Les Sealey in a 2-0 home win over Luton on 20th September 1986. Gale’s third and final goal of the campaign came from another free-kick, this time in a 4-0 FA Cup fourth round home win over Sheffield United on 9th February 1987. Gale would make 20 appearances in 1987/88, without scoring, as the Hammers dropped again to 16th.

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Disaster struck in 1988/89 as the Irons were relegated from the top flight and John Lyall was sacked. Gale scored once in 44 matches – it was arguably his most famous goal in claret and blue, a by-now trademark flighted free-kick to seal a 4-1 League Cup fourth round win over Liverpool on 30th November 1988 at Upton Park. Life under Lou Macari was short-lived, with Gale’s former team-mate Billy Bonds taking over the top job in February 1990. Gale scored his only goal from his 45 appearances in 1989/90 a month after Bonds assumed the reigns, in a 2-2 home draw with Port Vale on 31st March 1990. The Hammers would win promotion under Bonds in 1990/91, with ‘Reggie’ – as Gale was nicknamed, after Reggie Kray, for his acerbic wit – making 33 appearances and scoring one goal, yet another free-kick in a 1-0 home win over Bristol City on 20th March 1991.

Less than a month later, on 14th April 1991, Gale became the first-ever footballer in the English game to be shown a straight red card for denying an attacker a goalscoring opportunity with a professional foul. Keith Hackett controversially issued the centre-half with his only career dismissal barely 25 minutes into an FA Cup Semi-Final against Nottingham Forest at Villa Park after bringing down Gary Crosby. The Second Division Hammers, who were level with their top-flight opponents at the time of the red card, lost the match 4-0 and missed the chance to meet Tottenham in the Final at Wembley. Hackett never officiated at Upton Park again after that fateful day.

Gale played 34 matches in 1991/92 but the Hammers would suffer relegation again, ending up bottom of the First Division. He played the full 90 minutes of a 1-0 win over Manchester United though, a result which dealt a massive blow to the Red Devils’ title dreams. 1992/93 was a generally happier campaign all round, with Gale making 24 appearances as the Hammers secured promotion to the Premier League – all but three of these appearances came in the second half of the season though, with Gale having to initially fight for a place in the side and ultimately playing a key role in the run-in, assuming a more dominant role in the air alongside his shorter partner, Steve Potts. ‘Reggie’ scored his final Hammers goal that season, the winner in a 2-1 triumph at Leicester on 30th January 1993 – it was also the only goal he scored for the club away from Upton Park.

Gale made 35 appearances in 1993/94 as the Hammers finished 13th on their return to the top flight. He played his final game for the club in a 3-3 draw against Southampton on 7th May 1994, the final day of the 1993/94 season and the last match played in front of a terraced North Bank and Chicken Run – it was Gale’s 300th league appearance for the Irons. He was rewarded for ten years of sterling service with a testimonial against a Republic of Ireland XI the day after his final competitive game. Tony Gale made 368 appearances for West Ham United in all competitions, scoring seven goals. All of these goals can be seen in my video below, alongside footage of his only red card for the club in that semi-final against Nottingham Forest.

Gale would move to Blackburn on a free transfer in 1994 at the age of 34, with whom he would win the Premier League title (with a little help from his former club on the last day of the 1994/95 season as the Hammers held challengers Manchester United to a draw at the Boleyn Ground). He ended his career with a season at Crystal Palace, retiring from professional football in the summer of 1996, although he did play non-league football for Maidenhead for a further two seasons. Now 59, Gale now works as a co-commentator and hosts events involving former players. He is also the chairman of semi-professional club Walton Casuals.

Referee

Tonight’s referee will be Lee Mason from Greater Manchester. His most recent game involving the Hammers was our 2-0 home defeat to Watford in December. Mason’s four games officiating the Hammers last season also all ended in defeat. He took charge of our 4-1 defeat at Arsenal last April; prior to that, he refereed our 3-0 home defeat to Burnley in March, while the other two matches were both 3-2 defeats: at Southampton in August 2017 when he failed to send off Dusan Tadic but did give Marko Arnautovic a red card, before awarding the Saints a match-winning penalty in added time; and against Newcastle at home in December 2017 when he awarded the Hammers a penalty only for Andre Ayew’s effort to be saved. Mason refereed the Hammers once in 2016/17 – the 1-0 home win over Hull when he awarded the Hammers a match-winning penalty.

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Mason refereed three Premier League matches involving the Hammers in 2014/15 – the 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa, the 1-0 home win over Sunderland and the 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford when he sent off Wayne Rooney, denied the Hammers a penalty when Morgan Amalfitano’s cross struck Radamel Falcao’s arm and disallowed Kevin Nolan’s last-minute strike for a marginal offside. Mason was also the man in the middle for our 1-0 FA Cup win at Bristol City in January 2015. He also officiated in four of our games in 2013/14, sending off two of our players (Mark Noble against Everton and James Tomkins at Cardiff) and disallowing a perfectly good Stewart Downing equaliser at Crystal Palace. He also sent off Mark Noble at Birmingham in December 2009.

Possible line-ups

West Ham United will be without Winston Reid, Carlos Sanchez and Andriy Yarmolenko for the rest of the season. Samir Nasri and Manuel Lanzini could make returns to the squad, but Fabian Balbuena and Jack Wilshere are still out. The Hammers have claimed just one victory in their last seven Premier League games, drawing three and losing three, having won five of their previous six.

Fulham are without the injured Marcus Bettinelli and Alfie Mawson but Havard Nordtveit, returning to London Stadium, and Lazar Markovic could make their debuts for the Cottagers. Loanee Timothy Fosu-Mensah is once again available, having missed out against parent club Manchester United. Fulham won their first Premier League game away to West Ham in 2001 but are winless in nine subsequent league visits, drawing four and losing five. This will be Fulham’s first Premier League game played on a Friday since Boxing Day 2008, when they drew 0-0 at Tottenham.

Possible West Ham United XI: Fabianski; Fredericks, Diop, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Antonio, Rice, Noble, Anderson; Chicharito, Arnautovic.

Possible Fulham XI: Rico; Fosu-Mensah, Odoi, Ream, Le Marchand, Bryan; Cairney, Chambers, Seri, Schurrle; Mitrovic.

Enjoy the game – Up The Hammers!

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