West Ham Till I Die
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Nostalgia

Lost 6-0…..But Bonzo Made Up For It Big Time

Guest Post by John Bayfield

The Soham Town Rangers youth football team boarded a coach early on Saturday January 12th 1974 for a day (especially for me) not to forget. We were playing a West Ham United youth eleven in a friendly at the Chadwell Heath training ground later that morning. We were outplayed by the quality of the young Hammers as we expected and I had the pleasure of picking the ball out of our net six times. I would have liked us to score just once but quality proved too much for us. I can’t remember exactly who was in the Hammers side we played that day (David Danson rings a bell in the old grey cells though) but the picture below might include some who probably did. At the time the young Hammers were playing in the South East Counties Youth League and Soham played in an East Anglian youth league played on Sundays. We had a couple of lads who later joined lower league clubs and our standard of play was pretty good but a fair bit lower than our hosts.

After the game we had some lunch before making our way to Upton Park for the battle that was West Ham United at home to Manchester United. It had been organised as part of our day that we could enter the ground through one of the main entrances, not the usual turnstiles, swiftly passing the crowds outside. We ended up standing near the front of the west stand, a few steps up from pitch side and close to the visitor’s bench. Both teams were struggling in the league that season which ended in relegation for the Reds after the famous Denis Law back heel goal for Manchester City at Old Trafford.

The home crowd was up for it big time. I had been to Upton Park once before (Liverpool, Jan. 1970) but this time it was the mixture of a large dose of excitement, tension and anticipation in the ground that I hadn’t felt on my last visit. Alas, due to injuries we had Bobby Moore, Trevor Brooking, Kevin Lock, John McDowell and ‘Pop’ Robson missing for the game.

West Ham United; Mervyn Day, Keith Coleman, Alan Wooler, Tommy Taylor, Frank Lampard, Mick McGiven, Billy Bonds, Graham Paddon, Bertie Lutton, Pat Holland and Clyde Best.

Manchester United; Alex Stepney; Alex Forsyth, Martin Buchan, Jim Holton, Stewart Houston, Bryan Greenhoff, Willie Morgan, Tony Young, Brian Kidd, George Graham and Lou Macari.

The player that defined that game to me was Billy Bonds. Playing in a midfield role, Bonzo was mesmerising. The usual 100% of graft, running, tackling, including some lovely passes sprayed around, he had the all round game and deservedly scored our first goal. For the visitors Jim Holton was a tough tackling, no holds barred centre half who didn’t take any prisoners and seconds after the kick off Billy intercepted a pass and as he took the ball forwards Holton went straight through him. The pattern had been set. Holton then continued trying to take lumps out of various opponents for most of the game. After being booked in the first half, somehow he stayed on the pitch till the end. My overriding memory of the game was late in the second half and we were ahead 2-1, the eventual score. Just yards in front of me, Bonds and Holton were involved in a challenge and briefly, the handbags appeared, quickly followed by some strong verbals. I could hear them shouting at each other but not what they said, due to the vociferous voices around me telling Billy to give Holton something they thought he well deserved. During their ‘conversation’ I noticed what looked like Holton was missing his top front teeth similar to Nobby Stiles and Joe Jordan. Maybe Billy was thinking he could make the gap a bit wider? We were the better side on the day and deserved the win. Pat Holland got our second with substitute Sammy McIlroy replying for the visitors. First video clip ends with Bonds scoring the first goal.

This second video clip has our second goal and Malcolm Allison’s take on the game highlighting Billy Bonds.

Over the years watching Bonds play for us, to me he was the epitome of what we wanted our footballers to be when they pulled on any shirt with the West Ham United badge on it. He set the STANDARD. He was the LEADER. He was and still is WEST HAM UNITED. Having been a goalkeeper myself and having a bias for Phil Parkes as my favourite Hammer, Billy was my favourite outfield player, the main engine in the heart of the 70/80’s teams that helped us to success.

William Arthur Bonds MBE. I doubt I will ever see the likes of him in one of our shirts again.

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