Blast from the past
April 1986 surely goes down as one of the most relentlessly exciting months in West Ham United’s history. Beginning with a 2-1 defeat at Nottingham Forest, the Hammers reinvigorated their title charge by winning eight of their next nine matches. The most outstanding and amazing game in this unforgettable run has to be the incredible 8-1 victory over this Saturday’s opponents, Newcastle United.
It was Monday the 21st of April 1986 – George Michael was number one with ‘A Different Corner’, Jossy’s Giants made its TV debut two days later and Fright Night topped the UK box office. Newcastle’s very own ‘Fright Night’ began to unfold after just three minutes when Alan Devonshire’s floated free-kick from the left was prodded home by an unmarked Alvin Martin for his first on what would turn out to be a remarkable personal night for ‘Stretch’. It was 2-0 after 11 minutes as Mark Ward found Ray Stewart overlapping on the right wing – Tonka’s cross-cum-shot was fumbled over his goalline by the Newcastle goalkeeper Martin Thomas, who had been suffering from injury before the game. On 36 minutes Devonshire played a short pass to Neil Orr who hit a rasping 30-yarder which deceived Thomas in mid-air and found the net for the Hammers’ third. Shortly before half-time, Stewart’s long throw sparked a spot of head tennis in the Newcastle penalty area, which culminated in future West Ham manager Glenn Roeder flicking the ball off his heel and into his own net to give the Irons an ultimately unassailable 4-0 half-time lead.
Thomas’ race was run and he was substituted at half-time with outfield player Chris Hedworth taking the goalkeeper’s jersey in his stead. Hedworth himself was soon injured in a collision with Tony Cottee but stayed between the sticks to see Martin (pictured above) notch his second of the game, and the Hammers’ fifth, after Tony Gale had flicked a cross into the path of his central defensive partner’s run. Hedworth succumbed to injury, with Newcastle consequently being reduced to ten men and Peter Beardsley becoming their third custodian of the evening. Hedworth never played for Newcastle again. Billy Whitehurst fired a consolation for the Magpies but the Hammers were soon back on the attack and grabbing a sixth. Devonshire and George Parris combined down the left, with Devonshire’s dinked cross to the far post being nodded in by the onrushing substitute Paul Goddard (who would go on to sign for Newcastle six months later). Goddard then released Cottee down the left and his cross was headed in by Frank McAvennie to make it seven. McAvennie would top the Hammers scoring charts with 28 goals from 51 matches in 1985/86.
There was still time for an eighth. Ward’s cross found Cottee in the area, the PFA Young Player of the Year-in-waiting being bundled to the ground by Roeder. With the majority of a buoyant Boleyn crowd of 24,735 chanting ‘Alvin, Alvin’, penalty king Stewart passed on responsibilities to his captain and the man of the moment… who didn’t disappoint, Martin completing a very unique hat-trick not just because it came from a defender, but because each strike was registered against a different goalkeeper. Cottee, who must have been desperate to add his own name to the scoresheet, hit the bar with a header late on, with the Hammers having to settle for just the eight goals. Cottee would be voted Hammer of the Year, with strike partner McAvennie runner-up. The action from this match can be viewed in my video below.
West Ham won their next four matches, keeping their title hopes alive until Liverpool clinched the championship with a win at Chelsea. In the final-game decider for the runners-up position, Everton beat the Hammers 3-1 at Goodison Park to leave the Irons in third place, still our highest ever League position. Unfortunately there was no prize of a European place in 1986/87 following the Heysel ban on English clubs in Europe. Liverpool would complete the Double by winning the FA Cup.
West Ham United: Phil Parkes, Ray Stewart, Alvin Martin, Tony Gale, George Parris, Mark Ward, Neil Orr, Alan Dickens (Paul Goddard), Alan Devonshire, Frank McAvennie, Tony Cottee.
Newcastle United: Martin Thomas (Ian Stewart), Neil McDonald, Glenn Roeder, John Anderson, John Bailey, Paul Stephenson, David McCreery, Chris Hedworth, Tony Cunningham, Peter Beardsley, Billy Whitehurst.
Club Connections
West Ham United and Newcastle United have shared a multitude of personnel over the years. Andy Carroll could play for the visitors against his old club. A brief run-through of others who have represented both clubs is best served by dividing them by playing position.
Goalkeepers: Shaka Hislop, Pavel Srnicek and Ike Tate.
Defenders: Stuart Pearce, Tommy Bamlett, Abdoulaye Faye, Wayne Quinn, Dave Gardner, Dickie Pudan and James Jackson.
Midfielders: Scott Parker, Lee Bowyer, Rob Lee, Mohamed Diame, Nolberto Solano, Kieron Dyer and Franz Carr.
Strikers: James Loughlin, Paul Goddard, Les Ferdinand, John Dowsey, Bryan ‘Pop’ Robson, Justin Fashanu, Demba Ba, Marlon Harewood, David Kelly, Keith Robson, Vic Keeble, Craig Bellamy and Paul Kitson.
Chris Hughton also played for the Hammers and managed the Magpies while Sam Allardyce and Alan Pardew have managed both clubs. Glenn Roeder also played for Newcastle and managed both clubs.
This week’s focus though is on a player who has captained both clubs this century. Kevin Nolan was born in Liverpool on 24th June 1982; a former England Under-21 international, Nolan signed for Bolton at the age of 16 and remained at the club for ten years. He signed for Newcastle United in January 2009 for a fee of £4m but could not save the club from relegation to the Championship at the end of the 2008/09 campaign. The midfielder was sent off in a home match against Everton a month after his arrival.
Nolan played a huge part in the Magpies’ successful title-winning campaign the following season however, scoring his first league goal for the club on 22nd August against Crystal Palace and netting 18 goals from midfield which included the first hat-trick of his career in a 4–0 away win against Ipswich Town on 26th September. Nolan was voted as the Championship Player of the Year at the Football League Awards and was made club captain in the summer of 2010, succeeding the retired Nicky Butt, as the club prepared for their Premier League return.
Nolan netted a brace in Newcastle’s 6-0 win against Aston Villa in their first home game back in the top flight and scored his first Premier League hat-trick in the Tyne-Wear derby against Sunderland in a 5-1 home win in October 2010. The midfielder helped the Magpies consolidate back in the top tier and, having scored 30 goals in 91 appearances for Newcastle in all competitions, he signed for relegated West Ham United in the summer of 2011.
New Hammers manager Sam Allardyce was reunited with his former Bolton protégé and named Nolan as the new club captain following the departure of Matthew Upson to Stoke. The 29-year-old’s league debut for the Irons came on 7th August 2011 in a 1-0 home defeat to Cardiff and he scored his first Hammers goal a week later in a 1-0 win at Doncaster. ‘Nobby’ scored in three more away games (the 4-1 win at Nottingham Forest, the 2-2 draw at Crystal Palace and the winner in the 1-0 victory at Brighton) before notching his first goal for the Hammers at the Boleyn Ground with a 25-yard volley in a 3-1 win against Derby. A red card early on in a 2-1 home win over Millwall blotted his copybook but two beautifully-lofted efforts over the goalkeeper in home and away matches against Burnley, a headed winner at home against Coventry, a perfectly-placed strike in a 2-0 win at Cardiff and tap-ins in a 1-1 home draw with Doncaster, 4-0 win at Barnsley and 6-0 home triumph over Brighton all added to Nolan’s goal tally. His 13th and final goal of 2011/12 was the opener in the home leg of the play-off semi-final against Cardiff to put the Hammers 3-0 up on aggregate and firmly on the way to Wembley. Nolan helped the Hammers secure an immediate top-flight return via the play-offs, while the team spirit he fostered as skipper was arguably the best the club had seen since the turn of the century.
Nolan continued his good form into the 2012/13 season, scoring the only goal of the game in a 1-0 home win against Aston Villa on the opening day. On 1st September 2012, he scored inside one minute during a 3-0 home win over Fulham as he was reunited with his old Newcastle pal Andy Carroll. He rescued a point in added time in a 1-1 home draw with Sunderland, scored in a 4-1 home win over Southampton and netted the winner back at his former club Newcastle. Nolan scored what transpired to be a consolation in a 3-1 loss at Fulham but claimed his 100th career goal in a 2-0 home victory over Wigan. Nolan rounded off a fine campaign by scoring a ‘perfect hat-trick’ (left foot, right foot and header) in a 4-2 win against Reading on the final day; this took him to ten league goals in a season for the fourth campaign in succession.
Nolan started the 2013/14 campaign by scoring on the opening day again, this time in a 2-0 home win over newly-promoted Cardiff. The Hammers struggled without a focal point in attack as the winter set in and indiscipline crept into the captain’s game – he was sent-off at Anfield in a 4-1 defeat by Liverpool and, after serving a three match ban, he was dismissed again in only his second match back for a needless foul in a 2-1 defeat at Fulham. He was fined two weeks wages but responded well, helping the club to 13 points from a possible 15 on his return to league action. Nolan was back amongst the goals during this period, scoring both goals in a 2-0 home win over Swansea and repeating the trick the following week by bagging a brace in a 2-0 victory at Aston Villa. Another goal followed in the 3-1 home win over Southampton to secure Nolan’s position as West Ham’s top scorer for the season – more importantly, these goals in February 2014 helped lift the Hammers from the bottom three at the end of January to the top ten by the close of the following month, easing relegation fears.
Nolan’s starting spot was less secure in 2014/15, with over a third of his 33 appearances in all competitions coming from the bench. Having been top scorer in the previous two seasons, he scored his only goal of the campaign and his last for West Ham in a 2-1 win at West Brom in December 2014. Nolan was clearly struggling to replicate the form of his first two years in east London and his final game for the Hammers came early in the 2015/16 campaign, on 22nd August 2015 in the 4-3 home defeat to Bournemouth, with Nolan withdrawn at half-time by new manager Slaven Bilic. Less than a week later, after scoring 31 goals in 157 appearances in all competitions for the club, Nolan left West Ham United by mutual consent after four years in claret and blue. Unfortunately, the club’s video of ‘all’ of Nolan’s goals for West Ham contains a mistake – it shows a disallowed header instead of including his lob at Burnley in March 2012. You can view every legitimate goal he scored for the Hammers on the WHTID social media pages.
Nolan became player-manager of League Two side Leyton Orient in January 2016 – he was relieved of his managerial duties three months later with the team two points off the play-offs, and left the club entirely later that summer. He was named manager of another League Two outfit, Notts County, in January 2017 – he helped the club avoid relegation at the end of the 2016/17 season. The Magpies made the play-offs in 2017/18 but lost in the semi-finals to Coventry; Nolan was sacked in August 2018 with County bottom of League Two having picked up one point from their first five league games. Now 37, Nolan has recently been linked with vacancies at former clubs Bolton and Leyton Orient, which have since been filled; he is reportedly a candidate for the Morecambe job.
Referee
The referee on Saturday will be Stuart Attwell. The Birmingham-based official will take charge of a West Ham game for only the tenth time – he has sent off a Hammers striker in two of his other nine games officiating the Irons. He refereed our 1-0 victory at Wigan in March 2009 and our 3-1 win at Blackpool in February 2011. The 36-year-old sent off the Latics’ Lee Cattermole for a shocking challenge on Scott Parker, while the Hammers’ Carlton Cole also received his marching orders during the aforementioned win at Wigan. Even Latics boss Steve Bruce criticised the decision to dismiss the Irons striker. Attwell also issued a first-half red card to Andy Carroll in our 1-1 draw at Burnley in October 2017.
Attwell also awarded an infamous ‘phantom’ goal for Reading in a Championship match against Watford in September 2008. He was the youngest-ever Premier League referee but was demoted from the Select Group in 2012. He refereed the Hammers in August 2018 in our 2-1 home defeat to Bournemouth, when he awarded the Irons a penalty which was converted by Marko Arnautovic, and in our 3-1 League Cup home defeat to Tottenham last October. Attwell awarded a dubious match-winning penalty to Manchester City at the Etihad in February and also refereed our 3-0 home win over Southampton in May. His most recent Hammers appointment was for our 2-2 draw at Bournemouth in September.
The VAR Official is Jarred Gillett.
Possible line-ups
For West Ham United, Lukasz Fabianski, Winston Reid, Jack Wilshere and Michail Antonio are unavailable. The Hammers won both Premier League meetings with Newcastle last season – the Irons last won three in a row against the Magpies in March 1999.
Newcastle United are hopeful that Fabian Schar, Florian Lejeune, Matt Ritchie and Andy Carroll could be available but Sean Longstaff is suspended. Newcastle haven’t scored more than once in any of their last ten Premier League games.
Possible West Ham United XI: Roberto; Zabaleta, Balbuena, Diop, Cresswell; Rice; Yarmolenko, Noble, Snodgrass, Anderson; Haller.
Possible Newcastle XI: Dubravka; Lascelles, Lejeune, Fernandez; Yedlin, Matthew Longstaff, Shelvey, Willems; Almiron, Saint-Maximin; Joelinton.
Enjoy the game – Up The Hammers!