NOTE FROM IAIN: The Predictor League for Aston Villa is open HERE. Entries can be submitted until 6pm this evening
Blast from the past
28th August 1991 – Bryan Adams was number one with ‘(Everything I Do) I Do It For You’, Pearl Jam’s debut studio album ‘Ten’ had been released the day before and Terminator 2: Judgment Day topped the UK box office. Former Tottenham and England left-back Cyril Knowles passed away two days later at the age of 47. Meanwhile, Billy Bonds’ West Ham United sealed a 3-1 victory over Aston Villa in front of 23,644 at Upton Park.
West Ham, newly-promoted to the top flight, had begun the season with two draws (at home to Luton and at Sheffield United) and a defeat (at Wimbledon). Hammers skipper Ian Bishop saw a left-foot shot from range flash high and wide before Mike Small’s header cleared the crossbar after good work from Tim Breacker, Matthew Rush and Kenny Brown – Rush had been used early as a substitute in the first half, replacing Martin Allen. 23-year-old Tony Daley, a pacey winger for Ron Atkinson’s visitors, cut in from the left flank to strike a low effort just wide of ‘Ludo’ Miklosko’s near post shortly before the interval. Daley would make his England debut 11 weeks later and would feature in the Euro ’92 campaign in Sweden under Graham Taylor – he gave Villa the lead after half-time, beating Brown to a through-ball before lifting the ball over the advancing Miklosko and into the net.
The Hammers pressed for a leveller, George Parris and Leroy Rosenior both sending efforts into the North Bank while Stuart Slater saw two efforts comfortably saved by Nigel Spink in the Villa goal. The equaliser came courtesy of 29-year-old Small (pictured below), a £400,000 summer signing from Brighton, who had scored the Hammers’ only goal of the season to date in a 1-1 draw at Sheffield United eight days previously. Colin Foster beat Paul McGrath in a challenge and found Small in the penalty area, who thumped a left-footed strike past Spink at his near post for his first Upton Park goal for his new club. Small would end the campaign as the Hammers’ top scorer with 18 goals from 51 matches.
Within a minute, the Hammers were 2-1 up. Breacker, playing manfully in an unfamiliar centre-half position, sent a free-kick into the Villa box – Small appeared to control the ball with his hand but it broke kindly for Rosenior to slam home what would transpire to be the last of his 23 goals for West Ham. Small later had an effort blocked by Spink and Rosenior sent another chance over. Kevin Richardson almost brought the visitors back on level terms, only for his left-footed shot to be kept out by a spectacular diving save from Miklosko.
The 3-1 victory was crowned late on by right-back Brown, who scored his first goal for the club since joining (initially on loan) from Plymouth. A nice move involving Mitchell Thomas, Rosenior and Slater saw the ball eventually worked to Brown, who took a couple of touches before sending a stunning, swerving strike between two Villa defenders, past the despairing dive of Spink and into the far corner of the net. The action from this match can be viewed in my video below.
Aston Villa would finish seventh in 1991/92, while the Hammers would end the campaign bottom and relegated. Leeds won the league and Liverpool won the FA Cup. Julian Dicks, who didn’t return from a serious knee injury until December, was voted Hammer of the Year, with Steve Potts runner-up.
West Ham United: Ludek Miklosko, Kenny Brown, Tim Breacker, Colin Foster, Mitchell Thomas, Martin Allen (Matthew Rush), George Parris, Ian Bishop, Stuart Slater, Mike Small, Leroy Rosenior.
Aston Villa: Nigel Spink, Chris Price (Dwight Yorke), Shaun Teale, Paul McGrath, Ugo Ehiogu, Kevin Richardson, Gordon Cowans, Paul Mortimer, Tony Daley, Cyrille Regis, Gary Penrice.
Club Connections
Former Villa loanee Robert Snodgrass welcomes his old club while ex-Hammer Henri Lansbury returns to east London. Other players who have appeared for both clubs include:
Goalkeepers: David James, Mervyn Day, Les Sealey.
Defenders: Bill Askew, Arthur Marjeram, James Collins, Gary Charles.
Midfielders: Joe Cole, Carlos Sanchez, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Tommy Southren, Nigel Reo-Coker, Nolberto Solano, Stewart Downing, Ray Houghton, Franz Carr, Fred Norris, Tony Scott.
Strikers: Carlton Cole, Marlon Harewood, Robbie Keane, Frank McAvennie, Peter Kyle, Phil Woosnam.
Today’s focus, though, falls on a player who turned out for Aston Villa but came through the Academy at West Ham United and later returned to manage the club. Alan Curbishley was born a mile from West Ham station – as a spot of trivia, his elder brother, Bill, was manager of The Who and one of the pallbearers at Reggie Kray’s funeral. ‘Curbs’ joined West Ham straight from school and made his debut at the age of 17 on 29th March 1975 in a 1-0 home defeat against Chelsea. At the end of that season, the schoolboy prodigy was part of the West Ham youth team that was defeated 5-1 on aggregate by Ipswich in the FA Youth Cup Final; his team-mates in that side included Geoff Pike, Paul Brush and Alvin Martin. Curbishley also won six caps for England Youth.
Curbishley scored his first goal for the club in a 2-1 win over Newcastle at Upton Park on 11th October 1975 and, aged 18, appeared in both legs of the European Cup Winners’ Cup tie against Den Haag. Sandwiched between those two matches against the Dutch side, ‘Curbs’ scored his second goal for the Hammers in a 2-1 home defeat to Birmingham on 6th March 1976.
A stylish midfield playmaker who was confident on the ball, Curbishley scored in a 5-3 home win over Tottenham on 6th November 1976 but it was the relegation season of 1977/78 which would see him establish himself in the side, making 35 starts – his only goal of the season came in a 1-0 victory over Birmingham on Boxing Day 1977, again at the Boleyn. His last goal for the Irons came in a 5-0 Second Division win over Cambridge at Upton Park, with his final appearance for the club coming in a 1-1 home draw with Leicester on 31st March 1979. Curbishley had scored five goals from midfield in 96 appearances for West Ham but was reluctantly allowed to leave for First Division Birmingham in April 1979, for £225,000 after a dispute over his role in the side.
Birmingham would be relegated the following month but Curbishley helped the Blues to an immediate return to the top flight in 1980, as his old side won the FA Cup – he also won an England Under-21 cap in 1980. Following 11 goals in 131 appearances for the Blues, Curbishley joined their cross-city rivals, European Cup holders Aston Villa, for £100,000 in 1983. He was the last player to be signed by Villa from Birmingham until the arrival of Jota in July 2019.
Ironically, the 25-year-old Curbishley made his debut for Tony Barton’s Villa against Birmingham – his new side beat his old side 1-0 on 4th April 1983. He represented the club in the UEFA Cup and was part of the team which reached the League Cup semi-finals in 1983/84. Curbishley’s only goal for Villa came in a 3-2 defeat at Watford on Boxing Day 1983 and he made his final appearance for the club almost a year later, on 15th December 1984 in a goalless home draw with Liverpool, by which time Graham Turner had taken over from Barton. Curbishley made 43 appearances for Aston Villa, scoring one goal.
Curbishley signed for Charlton in December 1984 – while his former club north of the River Thames was finishing third in the top flight in 1985/86, he was again enjoying success of his own as his Addicks side was promoted to the First Division. He scored six goals in 63 matches for Charlton before joining Brighton in 1987 where he would score 13 goals in 116 appearances and again enjoy a promotion campaign, this time to the Second Division in 1988.
Curbishley rejoined Charlton as player-coach in 1990 and became joint-manager (alongside Steve Gritt) a year later. He enjoyed a remarkable 15-year spell as Charlton manager, including two promotions to the Premier League, the first via the play-offs in 1998 and the second as champions in 2000. Charlton finished the 2000/01 campaign in ninth place, enjoying home wins over Chelsea and Arsenal. Curbishley continued to consolidate Charlton as a Premier League outfit, finishing seventh in 2003/04 – following this campaign, he was strongly linked to the vacant managerial role at Liverpool but lost out to Rafa Benitez. With Steve McClaren being preferred in the race for another blue riband job, that of England manager in spring 2006, Curbishley brought the curtain down on his successful reign as Charlton manager. The season after his departure, the Addicks were relegated from the Premier League and were demoted again two years later to the third tier of English football, highlighting further the achievements during Curbishley’s tenure.
After a brief sabbatical, Curbishley jumped at the opportunity to return to the game in the form of the top job at his boyhood team, West Ham United, 27 years after he had left the club as a player. Winning his first game at home against Manchester United, he completed ‘The Greatest Escape’ with a run-in that included victories at The Emirates (Arsenal’s first defeat at their new home) and Old Trafford. Despite great upheaval involving the playing staff and a catalogue of injuries, Curbishley led the Hammers to a tenth-placed finish in his only full season in charge, as well as to the quarter-finals of the League Cup.
After three league matches of 2008/09, with the Hammers fourth in the league after a 4-1 win over Paul Ince’s Blackburn had secured a best start to a season for nine years, Curbishley resigned after half of his back four, Anton Ferdinand and George McCartney, were sold against his wishes. Perhaps Curbs’ greatest legacy at the club was the £7m signing of his former Charlton protégé Scott Parker, who went on to win the Hammer of the Year prize three times and pick up a Football Writers’ Player of the Year Award during his time at the club. Curbishley spent two months as Technical Director at Fulham in the winter of 2013/14 and rejoined the coaching staff at Craven Cottage in March 2015, where he worked alongside Kit Symons for eight months. Speaking to The Guardian in 2018, Curbishley (now 63) said:
“My position [at West Ham] was untenable so things came to a head. It was disappointing because we had a decent side that could compete. It was a big decision. It took me a year to sort out my differences with West Ham, which was far too long. Then the opportunities I was being offered didn’t really appeal to me. It was mostly Championship stuff. Suddenly you find that it’s been two or three years and you’re out of favour. You’re forgotten. The game moves on so quickly. Owners who are new to the game don’t really know about you. Then I possibly lost a bit of enthusiasm for it, to be honest. I started doing other things and getting involved in TV work and I was enjoying that. Then you’re out too long. That’s the problem. I have been forgotten. Things move on, don’t they? Football doesn’t stand still. You’ve got to be in it and around it. But I haven’t been on Mars. I see football every weekend and in midweek. I know what’s going on. It’s not as if I’m completely out of touch. I’ve had over 800 games and I think I’m still in the top 10 for games managed in the Premier League.”
Referee
Monday’s referee will be Peter Bankes, who will be taking charge of his first Premier League match involving West Ham United. He has refereed the Hammers previously in the League Cup though, for our 2-1 third round defeat at Leicester in September 2015.
The Merseyside-based official has been the man in the middle for three Premier League games already this season, as well as refereeing three matches in the Championship and one in the League Cup. Bankes’ first refereeing appointment was in February 2014.
Possible line-ups
Andriy Yarmolenko is unavailable and Michail Antonio is a doubt. West Ham are unbeaten in their past five home league games against Aston Villa, winning two and drawing three.
Aston Villa will be without the injured Tom Heaton, Frederic Guilbert, Bjorn Engels, Ross Barkley and Wesley but Bertrand Traore should be available. Kortney Hause and Keinan Davis are doubts. There have been just nine goals scored in the last eight league meetings between West Ham and Aston Villa.
Possible West Ham United XI: Fabianski; Coufal, Balbuena, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Masuaku; Bowen, Soucek, Rice, Fornals; Haller.
Possible Aston Villa XI: Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Mings, Targett; Douglas Luiz, McGinn; Trezeguet, Grealish, Traore; Watkins.
Enjoy the game – Up The Hammers!