Blast from the past
Today’s focus sees us travel back over 93 years, to the 15th April 1927 – George Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ was given an electric re-recording by Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra, with Gershwin at the piano, and the first Volvo rolled off the production line in Gothenburg, Sweden as West Ham United secured a 3-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur in front of 42,010 at White Hart Lane.
Outside-left Jimmy Ruffell bagged a brace in this Good Friday match, with inside-right Stan Earle scoring the other as the Hammers pushed into the First Division’s top four with five matches remaining. Charlie Handley scored Tottenham’s consolation. The Hammers then travelled up to Burnley for an Easter Saturday match the next day, which they would lose 2-1, before being back in action again on Easter Monday, again against Tottenham who would gain swift revenge with a 2-1 victory at Upton Park. Two-goal hero Ruffell is pictured below with Bobby Moore nearly 46 years later on 17th February 1973, the day the World Cup-winning England captain surpassed Ruffell’s record number of West Ham United appearances.
Ruffell would end the season with 14 goals from 40 appearances, second only to the legendary Vic Watson who scored an incredible 37 goals in 45 matches, although did not find himself on the scoresheet on this spring afternoon in North London.
The win at White Hart Lane would transpire to be the Irons’ final victory of the season. Syd King’s Hammers would end the 1926/27 First Division season in their at-the-time highest ever position of sixth, while Tottenham finished 13th. Newcastle won the league and Cardiff won the FA Cup.
Tottenham Hotspur: Jack Britton, Matt Forster, Cecil Poynton, Harry Skitt, Jack Elkes, Alex Lindsay, Frank Osborne, Taffy O’Callaghan, Arthur Sanders, Charlie Handley, Jimmy Dimmock.
West Ham United: Ted Hufton, Jack Hebden, George Horler, Jimmy Collins, Jim Barrett, Albert Cadwell, Tommy Yews, Stan Earle, Vic Watson, Viv Gibbins, Jimmy Ruffell.
Club Connections
Ryan Fredericks returns to his former club; a large group of players join him in having turned out for Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United. Divided here by position, they include:
Goalkeepers: Bill Kaine, Charlie Ambler, Tony Parks, Fred Griffiths.
Defenders: Calum Davenport, Paul Konchesky, Mark Bowen, Mauricio Tarrico, Steve Walford, Chris Hughton, Percy Mapley, Fred Milnes, Mitchell Thomas, Neil Ruddock.
Midfielders: Paul Allen, Scott Parker, Michael Carrick, Jimmy Neighbour, Matthew Etherington, Ilie Dumitrescu, Mark Robson, David Bentley, Charlie Whitchurch, Chris Carrick, Martin Peters, John Smith.
Strikers: Mido, Frederic Kanoute, Almer Hall, Bobby Zamora, Peter Kyle, Sergei Rebrov, Kenny McKay, George Foreman, Dave Dunmore, Teddy Sheringham, Les Bennett, Jermain Defoe, Bill Joyce, Robbie Keane, Fred Massey, Jimmy Reid, Clive Allen, Les Ferdinand, Jimmy Greaves, Harry Bradshaw.
Jack Tresadern played for West Ham and managed Tottenham, while Trevor Hartley also played for the Hammers and managed Spurs on a caretaker basis. Alan Pardew played for Tottenham and managed the Hammers, while Harry Redknapp played for the Hammers and managed both clubs.
Today’s focus though is on a player who started his career at Tottenham before enjoying nine seasons with West Ham. John Moncur was born in Stepney on 22nd September 1966 – he first impressed for Harlow, South-West Essex and London Schools before joining Tottenham as an apprentice in April 1983. He had spent time with Arsenal, Leyton Orient and West Ham but his father, John Senior, was Tottenham’s youth development officer at the time. Moncur made his Tottenham debut at the age of 20 in a 1-0 defeat at Everton on 11th May 1987, a match which also saw future Hammers Tony Parks, Chris Hughton and Neil Ruddock turn out for Spurs in a largely reserve XI days before the FA Cup Final. Moncur’s Tottenham debut had followed two loan spells away from White Hart Lane earlier in 1986/87, first with Third Division Doncaster and later with Fourth Division Cambridge. He made five appearances for Spurs in 1987/88 and only one in 1988/89; his time was mainly spent in the reserves with Paul Gascoigne and Vinny Samways blocking his path to the first team.
Further loan spells took Moncur to Portsmouth in the Second Division in the spring of 1989 and third-tier Brentford in the autumn of that year. He returned to Tottenham to make five appearances in the second half of 1989/90 and scored his only goal for Spurs with a header in a 2-1 defeat at Derby on 24th February 1990. Moncur made 11 appearances for Tottenham in 1990/91, while his final game for the club was his only appearance of 1991/92, in a 1-0 League Cup second round first leg defeat at Swansea on 25th September 1991. After a loan spell at John Lyall’s Ipswich in the autumn of 1991, Moncur signed for Second Division Swindon, and former Tottenham colleague Glenn Hoddle, in March 1992 for a fee of £80,000. He had made 24 appearances for Tottenham, scoring one goal.
Having helped Swindon gain promotion in 1993, and after enjoying a season in the Premier League with the Wiltshire-based club in 1993/94, Moncur signed for Billy Bonds’ West Ham United in June 1994 for £1m. Chelsea, by now managed by Hoddle, had also shown interest but Moncur opted to sign for the club he had supported as a boy; he made his debut in claret and blue in a 1-0 defeat at Norwich on 27th August 1994. By the time the 27-year-old Moncur made his debut, Harry Redknapp had taken over the managerial reigns from Bonds. Moncur was a classy central midfielder who was composed in possession and displayed good vision; he scored his first goal for the club in a 2-1 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on 2nd October 1994 and followed that up three days later with his first goal at Upton Park in a 2-0 League Cup second round second leg win over Walsall. He scored his third goal of the campaign in a crucial 2-0 win at Aston Villa on 18th March 1995, a cracking left-foot strike from distance after collecting the ball with one of his trademark Cruyff turns. Moncur formed an effective central midfield partnership with Ian Bishop in 1994/95, making 35 starts as the Hammers finished 14th.
The Hammers finished tenth in 1995/96, with Moncur making 23 starts. He scored his first goal of the season with a viciously-swerving long-range shot at Bristol Rovers, the only goal of the game in a League Cup second round first leg win. His only other goal that season was also in a cup competition, in a 2-0 FA Cup third round win over Southend at the Boleyn on 6th January 1996. 1996/97 saw a change in shirt number for Moncur – Paulo Futre refused to play for his new club unless he could wear his beloved number ten shirt then owned by ‘Moncs’. The promise of a stay at Futre’s Portuguese villa won Moncur round and he wore the number 16 shirt for the rest of his Hammers days. The Irons dropped down to a 14th-placed finish in 1996/97, Moncur making 31 starts and again scoring two goals. Both strikes came against Leicester and earned the Hammers a crucial six points, the first in a 1-0 victory at Upton Park on 19th October 1996 and the second in a vital 1-0 win at Filbert Street on 23rd April 1997.
West Ham were upwardly mobile and competition for midfield places was becoming fierce with the signings of Steve Lomas and Eyal Berkovic coupled with the emergence of Frank Lampard Junior from the youth team. Moncur still managed 20 starts in 1997/98 as the Hammers finished eighth; he scored his only goal of the season in a 6-0 home win over Barnsley on 10th January 1998. The Hammers moved on up to a fifth-placed finish in 1998/99 but Moncur only made 15 appearances, with eight of those from the bench – he picked up his first red card in a 2-1 win at former club Tottenham on 24th April 1999. The dismissal was for two yellow cards, with the second being issued after a late challenge on Jose Dominguez – with the Hammers leading very late on, Moncur raised two clenched fists to the claret and blue army as he exited the field of play. It was around this time that Moncur had started to explore the Christian faith to help him deal with his anger; he was confirmed in May 1999.
‘Moncs’ made 25 starts in a 1999/2000 season which saw West Ham finish ninth. He was given his second red card of his Hammers career in a 1-0 defeat at Coventry on 25th September 1999, again for two yellow cards with the second being awarded for an off-the-ball kick at Gary McAllister. Moncur scored his final goal for West Ham in a 5-4 win over Bradford at Upton Park on 12th February 2000. All nine of Moncur’s Hammers goals can be viewed in my video below.
The 2000/01 season was the start of Moncur being used more from the bench, with Michael Carrick and Joe Cole establishing themselves in the side – he made 17 appearances but 11 of them were as a substitute. This pattern continued under new manager Glenn Roeder in 2001/02. Moncur picked up his third and final red card for the Hammers in a 3-0 FA Cup third round win at Macclesfield on 6th January 2002, receiving two yellow cards in the same incident – he had fouled an opponent and, in attempting to pull him back to his feet, instigated a fracas. When the kerfuffle had died down, Moncur was booked for the foul and then given a second yellow for the ensuing incident and was sent off.
All seven of Moncur’s appearances in the relegation season of 2002/03 were from the bench; his last appearance for the Hammers came in a 3-1 defeat to Arsenal at Highbury on 19th January 2003. Moncur had made 203 appearances for West Ham United over nine years, scoring nine goals; he was booked on 61 occasions and sent off three times. The 36-year-old Moncur retired after leaving West Ham having become disillusioned by his lack of playing time and the club’s relegation. His son George went on to make two appearances for the West Ham first team – he is now at Luton while another of Moncur’s sons, Freddy, played for Leyton Orient and most recently turned out for Romford. Moncur and his wife Kerry have a third son, Timmy. Now 53, Moncur has invested in power plants and recruitment; he launched Drillmore Solutions in 2014, a Chingford-based company which recruits workers for oil rigs around the globe.
Referee
Tuesday’s referee will be Craig Pawson; 2019/20 is Pawson’s eighth as a Premier League referee. In 2014/15 he refereed West Ham’s 3-1 home win over Liverpool and sent off Adrian in our 0-0 draw at Southampton, a decision that was later overturned. His Hammers appointments in 2015/16 were both at the Boleyn Ground, for our 2-2 draw with Manchester City in January 2016 and the 3-3 draw with Arsenal three months later.
Pawson’s matches in charge of West Ham United in 2016/17 saw him send off Harry Arter as the Hammers defeated Bournemouth 1-0 in August 2016, while he also officiated in our 2-1 home win over Chelsea in the fourth round of the League Cup in two months later. He also refereed our 5-1 home defeat to Arsenal in December 2016. He awarded Watford a penalty and sent off Michail Antonio as the Irons drew 1-1 at Watford in February 2017. Pawson did not referee the Hammers at all in 2017/18; his Irons games last season were our 8-0 win over Macclesfield, our 2-1 win at Southampton and, most recently, our 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace in February 2019. Tonight’s match is his first involving the Hammers this season.
Possible line-ups
West Ham are bidding to maintain their 100% record at Tottenham’s new stadium. Lucas Moura is set to return for the hosts but Juan Foyth and Japhet Tanganga are out.
West Ham United are likely to be without Robert Snodgrass and Sebastien Haller while Pablo Zabaleta and Arthur Masuaku are doubts. Angelo Ogbonna could return. The Hammers have won only twice in their last 16 Premier League games away to Tottenham, drawing six and losing nine.
Possible Tottenham Hotspur XI: Lloris; Aurier, Dier, Sanchez, Davies; Sissoko, Winks; Bergwijn, Lamela, Son; Kane.
Possible West Ham United XI: Fabianski; Ngakia, Diop, Rice, Cresswell; Soucek, Noble; Bowen, Anderson, Fornals; Antonio.
Enjoy the game – Come On You Irons!