Blast from the past
Today’s blast from the past features a 3-1 victory at Upton Park against this weekend’s opponents, Brighton. It arrived just over 109 years ago, on 5th November 1910 in front of 14,000 spectators. H.H. Asquith was Prime Minister and Henry Dunant, the Swiss co-founder of the Red Cross, had died six days earlier.
Legendary Hammers goal-getter Danny Shea (pictured) was on the scoresheet the day before his 23rd birthday; Shea would end the 1910/11 season as the Irons’ top scorer with 28 goals in 39 games. Irons goalkeeper George Kitchen, a penalty-taker and scorer of six goals in his 205 appearances for West Ham, was also on the scoresheet – it turned out to be his final goal for the club. 19-year-old centre-forward Bill Kennedy, a new signing from Northfleet United, scored on his debut to round off the win for the hosts – it was his first of ten goals in 23 appearances for West Ham United.
Grays-born Kennedy saw action in the First World War serving the London Scottish Regiment at Loos as part of an offensive on the Hohenzollern Redoubt and was killed in action in France on 13th October 1915; his brother, John, was also killed during the conflict. Both are commemorated at the Loos Memorial.
Syd King’s Hammers ended the 1910/11 season in fifth place in the Southern League First Division; Brighton were to finish third. Swindon won the Southern League First Division, Manchester United won the league title and Bradford won the FA Cup.
West Ham United: George Kitchen, Bill Lavery, Bob Fairman, Bob Whiteman, Frank Piercy, Tommy Randall, Herbert Ashton, Danny Shea, Bill Kennedy, Fred Blackburn, Tommy Caldwell.
Club Connections
Players who have appeared for both clubs include:
Goalkeeper: Harry Medhurst.
Defenders: Len Young, Dennis Burnett, Mauricio Taricco, Tommy McAteer, Matthew Upson, Keith McPherson, William Kelly and Wayne Bridge.
Midfielders: Sebastien Carole, Bertie Lutton, John Payne, George Parris and Tony Stokes.
Strikers: Greg Campbell, Bertie Lyon, Brian Dear, Tommy Dixon, Justin Fashanu, Sam Jennings, Sam Small, Bobby Zamora, Dave Sexton, Mike Small and Paul Kitson.
In addition, ex-Hammers Archie Macaulay, Liam Brady and Chris Hughton have managed Brighton. Alan Curbishley played for both clubs and managed the Hammers.
This week’s focus though is on a player who spent a season with the Hammers before later spending four years with the Seagulls. Sam Baldock was born in Buckingham on 15th March 1989 and started his professional career with MK Dons, where he played under former West Ham midfielders Martin Allen and Paul Ince. He made two appearances for England Under-20s in 2009 before signing for Sam Allardyce’s West Ham United for £2.5m in August 2011.
The 22-year-old striker made his Hammers debut as a substitute in a goalless draw at Millwall on 17th September 2011. He scored his first goals for the club on 15th October 2011, bagging a brace in a 4-0 victory over Blackpool; he notched another double in his next home game two weeks later in a 3-2 win over Leicester. Baldock scored again in a 2-0 win at Hull on 5th November 2011, a strike which was his fifth goal in his first six starts but was also to prove to be his last in claret and blue.
Injury kept Baldock out of the side in the run-up to Christmas and the club’s signings of Nicky Maynard and Ricardo Vaz Te in the January transfer window restricted his first-team opportunities. He made his final appearance for West Ham in a 2-1 home win over Hull on 28th April 2012. He joined Championship side Bristol City in August 2012 for £1.7m – he had scored five goals in 24 appearances for West Ham United. All five of these goals can be viewed in my video below.
Bristol City were relegated at the end of Baldock’s first season but he won the League One Golden Boot in 2013/14, scoring 24 goals. After two years at Ashton Gate, Baldock returned to the Championship by signing for Brighton in August 2014 for a £2.2m fee. The 25-year-old made his Seagulls debut in a 2-2 home draw with Charlton on 30th August 2014 but had to wait just over two months to score his first Brighton goal, in a 3-2 defeat at Bournemouth on 1st November. He scored only three more goals in 2014/15, although one of them did come against Premier League opposition in a 3-2 home defeat to Arsenal in the FA Cup fourth round.
Baldock again struggled for goals in 2015/16, scoring four times in 33 games as Brighton reached the Championship Play-Offs. The following season was better for both Baldock and Brighton – he scored 12 goals in 34 matches as the Seagulls won automatic promotion to the Premier League in 2016/17. Baldock made only two appearances totalling 30 minutes in the top flight in 2017/18 as calf problems restricted him to playing only five games in total during the campaign. His final goal for Brighton had been scored in the Championship in a 3-0 home win over Derby on 10th March 2017, with his final appearance for the club coming in a 2-0 home defeat to Leicester in the Premier League on 31st March 2018.
After four years, 94 appearances and 20 goals at Brighton, the 29-year-old Baldock returned to the Championship to sign for Reading in a £3.5m move in the summer of 2018. Now 30, Baldock is still at the Berkshire club and has scored four goals in 16 appearances for fellow former Hammer Mark Bowen’s side this season.
Referee
The referee on Saturday will be Michael Oliver. He has refereed 22 of our matches, officiating in five wins for the Hammers, five draws and 12 defeats. Oliver has refereed the Irons three times this season, in our 2-1 home defeat to Crystal Palace in October, when he awarded the visitors a match-levelling penalty, for our 3-2 home defeat to Tottenham in November and, most recently, for our 1-0 defeat at Sheffield United a few weeks ago.
Oliver also refereed our 1-1 draw at Leicester in October 2018, when he sent off Mark Noble. His only previous red card issued to a West Ham player came six seasons ago, when he sent off Kevin Nolan in our 4-1 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield in December 2013. Oliver also refereed our 3-1 home win over Manchester United last season.
Possible line-ups
West Ham United are without the injured Ryan Fredericks, Jack Wilshere, Andriy Yarmolenko and Felipe Anderson while Michail Antonio is a doubt. New signing Tomas Soucek is likely to be involved. West Ham have never beaten Brighton in the Premier League, drawing twice and losing three times – the Hammers’ last triumph over the Seagulls was a 6-0 home Championship victory in April 2012. The Irons’ tally of seven Premier League home defeats in 2019/20 is already more than in either of the previous two seasons.
Brighton are without centre-backs Shane Duffy, Dan Burn and Leon Balogun, but Jose Izquierdo could return. The Seagulls have lost three away games in a row – only bottom-of-the-table Norwich have a longer run of away defeats in the division.
Possible West Ham United XI: Fabianski; Zabaleta, Diop, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Snodgrass, Rice, Noble, Fornals; Lanzini; Haller.
Possible Brighton XI: Ryan; Montoya, Webster, Dunk, Bernardo; Bissouma, Propper; Mooy, Gross, Trossard; Maupay.
Enjoy the game – Come On You Irons!
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