Blast from the past
19th April 1952 – Nat King Cole was number one with ‘Unforgettable’ and Ted Fenton’s mid-table West Ham United beat George Roughton’s Southampton 4-0 in a Second Division encounter in front of 18,119 at The Boleyn Ground.
This match was the Hammers’ last home game, and final victory, of the 1951/52 campaign – they would close the season with two away draws, at Brentford and Sheffield Wednesday. They came up against a side containing future Chelsea and England right-back Peter Sillett, while fellow full-back Bill Ellerington had already been capped by the Three Lions.
West Ham’s goals in this victory 68 years ago came courtesy of a brace from 32-year-old East Ham-born outside-right Terry Woodgate (pictured) and strikes from 21-year-old inside-right Jim Barrett Junior (the son of Hammers legend and England international ‘Big Jim’ Barrett) and 24-year-old Irish centre-forward Fred Kearns.
John Terence (‘Terry’) Woodgate had made his Hammers debut before the Second World War, on 7th April 1939 in a 2-0 Good Friday home defeat to Bradford Park Avenue. He won a regular place in the first team after the conflict having served for more than six years with the Essex Regiment and Royal Artillery. He scored a seven-minute hat-trick against Plymouth in a Football League South fixture at Upton Park on 16th February 1946. He bagged a total of 74 goals in 355 appearances in the claret and blue, making his final appearance in a 5-1 Essex Professional Cup defeat at Colchester on 22nd October 1953 before transferring to Peterborough in March 1954 following the emergence of Harry Hooper and Malcolm Musgrove as regular first-team contenders. He later played for March Town United, and went on to be the landlord of the Cock Inn pub in the Cambridgeshire town of March after his retirement from playing. Terry Woodgate died in the town of March, aged 65, on 26th April 1985.
West Ham went on to finish the 1951/52 season in 12th position. Bert Hawkins was the club’s top goalscorer with 15 goals from 37 matches. Southampton finished 13th, Sheffield Wednesday won the Second Division title, Manchester United won the league and Newcastle won the FA Cup.
West Ham United: Ernie Gregory, George Wright, Harry Kinsell, Derek Parker, Malcolm Allison, Frank O’Farrell, Terry Woodgate, Jim Barrett Junior, Fred Kearns, Gerry Gazzard, Jimmy Andrews.
Southampton: Fred Kiernan, Peter Sillett, Billy Ellerington, Bryn Elliott, Stan Clements, Joe Mallett, Eric Day, Ted Bates, Walter Judd, Jimmy McGowan, Tom Lowder.
Club Connections
Michail Antonio welcomes his former club. An array of West Ham United’s good, bad and ugly have also turned out for Southampton:
Goalkeepers: Richard Wright, George Kitchen.
Defenders: Richard Hall, Christian Dailly, Joe Kirkup, Wayne Bridge, Neil Ruddock, Jose Fonte, Ian Pearce, Bill Adams, Darren Powell, Albie Roles, Horace Glover, Calum Davenport.
Midfielders: Bobby Weale, Luis Boa Morte, Nigel Quashie, Eyal Berkovic, Robbie Slater, Peter Cowper, Jimmy Carr, Paul Allen.
Strikers: Vic Watson, Justin Fashanu, David Speedie, David Connolly, Viv Gibbins, Iain Dowie, Ted MacDougall, Henri Camara, Alex McDonald, Frank Costello, Walter Pollard, Arthur Wilson, Jimmy Harris, Jack Foster, Jack Farrell.
In addition, George Kay played for the Hammers and managed the Saints while Harry Redknapp and Alan Pardew have managed both clubs.
Today’s focus though is on a player who turned out for Southampton before representing West Ham later in his career. Fred Harrison was a centre-forward who was born on 2nd July 1880 in Winchester. Starting his career with local sides Fitzhugh Rovers and Bitterne Guild in Southampton, he was discovered by famous Saints player Joe Turner who recommended him to the Southampton directors as a “fast goal-getter with a deadly shot”. The 20-year-old Harrison made his Saints debut in the penultimate match of the 1900/01 Southern League championship season. During the following season, Harrison gradually established himself in the team on the left wing, making 15 league appearances and scoring five goals.
Moving to centre-forward ‘Buzzy’, as he was known by his adoring public at The Dell, quickly found his form scoring five goals in consecutive Southern League home matches against Wellingborough Town and Northampton in March 1903. He finished the 1902/03 season as top scorer with 17 goals from just 13 matches as Southampton won the Southern League championship. He was again top scorer in the 1903/04 season with 27 goals from 32 league appearances as the Saints clinched the Southern League title for the sixth (and final) time in eight seasons – he scored hat-tricks in a 5-1 victory over Northampton on 7th December 1903 and in a 6-1 defeat of Bristol Rovers on 12th March 1904 with his form earning him an England trial. Harrison suffered from illness in 1904/05 and struggled to find the form which had made him such a success in the previous season. He regained some of his form in the 1905/06 and 1906/07 seasons, during which he was again top scorer. By now Southampton were beginning to struggle both on the pitch and financially and in November 1907, along with Fred Mouncher, he was sold to Fulham for the huge sum of £1,000. Harrison had made 166 appearances for Southampton, scoring 88 goals.
After nearly four years in the Football League with the west Londoners, the 30-year-old Harrison (pictured) moved to Southern League West Ham United with team-mate George Redwood in 1911, again for £1,000, and got off to a flying start in Hammers colours by scoring on his debut in a 4-1 win against former club Southampton on Good Friday, 14th April 1911; he also bagged the only goal of the game in the reverse fixture at The Dell three days later. He endeared himself further to the West Ham faithful when he scored both goals in a 2-1 win over Millwall at Upton Park on 4th November 1911 in front of a 23,000 crowd, more than double the usual Hammers attendance at the time. Harrison scored 16 goals in the 1911/12 campaign, partly making up for the loss of George Webb when illness ruled the England international out for the rest of the season in December. He formed a great partnership with Danny Shea and was part of the Irons team that defeated First Division Middlesbrough in the FA Cup second round in February 1912 – Harrison scored West Ham’s goal in the first match which was drawn 1-1 at Ayresome Park and, despite carrying an injury from the first match, he scored the winner in the replay at the Boleyn.
George Hilsdon, returning to the club from Chelsea, replaced Harrison in the front-line in the 1912/13 season. Harrison was switched to play at centre-half for several games, including a notable 5-0 FA Cup second round defeat at Aston Villa on 1st February 1913 – Villa would go on to finish second in the First Division and win the FA Cup at the end of the campaign. Harrison scored his last goal for the Hammers in a 1-1 home draw, again against former club Southampton, on 15th February 1913; his final appearance for the Irons was on the 29th March 1913, in a 2-1 home win over Brentford. Harrison had made 62 appearances in his two years with West Ham United, scoring 23 goals. He transferred to Bristol City in August 1913, where he ended his career the following year.
After being gassed during action in the First World War, he set up a master plasterers business in Southampton. Fred Harrison passed away in Swaythling, Southampton on 21st November 1969, at the age of 89.
Referee
The referee on Saturday will be 41-year-old Anthony Taylor – his Irons appointments this season have been for our 1-1 draw at Brighton in August and, most recently, our 2-0 home win over Manchester United in September. He also refereed our 1-0 win at Tottenham last April.
Controversy and incident are never far away when the Cheshire-based official is the referee for a West Ham United match. Taylor was in charge for our 2-1 opening-day defeat at Chelsea in August 2016, awarding the home side a penalty and later controversially failing to issue a second yellow card to Diego Costa for an awful lunge at Adrian – Costa remained on the pitch to score the 89th-minute winner. Taylor also awarded a controversial and ultimately match-winning penalty to Liverpool at Upton Park in April 2014, while there was also controversy surrounding Guy Demel’s equaliser for West Ham in that game. Taylor is also the referee who had not one, but two red cards rescinded from the same game after he had sent off Carlton Cole and Darron Gibson in the Hammers’ 2-1 home defeat to David Moyes’ Everton in December 2012. He sent off the home side’s Kevin Mirallas against the Hammers at Goodison Park in March 2016 and awarded the Toffees a penalty which Romelu Lukaku saw saved by Adrian.
Possible line-ups
David Moyes is without Tomas Soucek, Jack Wilshere and Andriy Yarmolenko, while Ryan Fredericks is expected to be out for six weeks following surgery.
Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl will be without Nathan Redmond but on-loan Tottenham right-back Kyle Walker-Peters is expected to be available. Saints winger Moussa Djenepo is a doubt for the game due to personal reasons after his mother sadly passed away.
Possible West Ham United XI: Fabianski; Ngakia, Diop, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Fornals, Rice, Noble, Anderson; Antonio, Haller.
Possible Southampton XI: McCarthy; Walker-Peters, Stephens, Bednarek, Bertrand; Ward-Prowse, Romeu, Hojbjerg, Armstrong; Ings, Long.
Enjoy the game – Come On You Irons!