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Blast from the past
Today’s blast from the past involves a trip back to 28th March 1910 when West Ham United enjoyed a 4-2 Southern League First Division victory over Crystal Palace in front of 20,000. Edward VII had fallen very ill in Paris with bronchitis and was in the last six weeks of his life and reign, Bela Bartok’s ‘String Quartet No.1’ had premiered in Budapest nine days earlier and, ten days before the game, the first cinematic version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein had been released in the United States by Edison Studios, becoming one of the first ever horror films.
This Easter Monday match was West Ham’s third of four games in five days – they had beaten Palace 3-1 at home in the reverse fixture on Good Friday, lost 2-1 at home to Millwall on Easter Saturday and went on to win 1-0 at Southend on Tuesday 29th March. Legendary Hammers goal-getter Danny Shea was on the scoresheet at the Crystal Palace Stadium (the pre-Wembley home of the FA Cup Final), as was outside-right Herbert ‘Tiddler’ Ashton. Shea would end the 1909/10 season as the Irons’ top scorer with 31 goals in 43 games and Ashton would make 336 appearances for the Hammers but it was a lesser-known light who stole the show against our south London neighbours.
23-year-old Albert Scanes (pictured) made his debut during this game and outshone both Shea and Ashton on the day. Born in Stepney on 19th December 1886 and signed from Barking as an understudy to West Ham’s first ever England international George Webb, whose business commitments often prevented him from appearing for the Hammers, Scanes bagged a brace on his debut to help the Hammers to this 4-2 victory over the Glaziers. He would play only three games for West Ham, scoring three goals, with his other strike coming in a 1-0 home victory over Northampton twelve days later. He would move on to Croydon Common in 1911 and was a wood machinist in later life. He passed away in 1972 at the age of 85.
Syd King’s Hammers would finish ninth in the Southern League First Division in 1909/10, while the Glaziers would end the campaign in seventh place, one point and two places above the Irons. Brighton were promoted from the division to the Football League as champions. Aston Villa won the league title and Newcastle won the FA Cup.
West Ham United: George Kitchen, Fred Shreeve, Bob Fairman, Robert Whiteman, Fred Massey, Tommy Randall, Herbert Ashton, Danny Shea, Albert Scanes, Fred Blackburn, Thomas Caldwell.
Club Connections
West Ham United Academy product and 2012 Hammer of the Year runner-up James Tomkins is now at Crystal Palace, as is fellow former Hammer Cheikhou Kouyate. A large group of players have turned out for the Hammers and the Eagles. Divided here by position, they include:
Goalkeepers: Perry Suckling, Steve Mautone, Vincent Blore.
Defenders: Eddie Presland, Matthew Upson, Malcolm Pyke, Alf Noakes, Bill Roberts, Neil Ruddock, Paul Brush, Danny Gabbidon, Jose Fonte, Chris Powell, Alan Stephenson, Tony Gale, Darren Powell.
Midfielders: Victor Moses, Jimmy Wood, Anton Otulakowski, Hayden Mullins, Derek Jackman, Carl Fletcher, Harry Gunning, Jobi McAnuff, Fred Norris, Trevor Dawkins, Kyel Reid, Ray Houghton, Michael Hughes.
Strikers: Joe Johnson, Ron Williams, Freddie Sears, Andy Smillie, Jeroen Boere, Johnny Cartwright, Ian Wright, Johnny Byrne, Peter Simpson, Clive Allen, Dave Swindlehurst, Paul Kitson, Ron Brett, Dave Sexton, Marouane Chamakh, George Petchey.
Malcolm Allison and Jack Tresadern played for the Hammers and managed the Eagles, while Iain Dowie played for both clubs and also managed Palace. Alan Pardew played for the Eagles and managed both clubs. Sam Allardyce has also managed both clubs.
Today’s focus though is on a full-back who played for West Ham in the 1990s and had a loan spell with Crystal Palace. Kenny Brown was born on 11th July 1967 in Barking – his father Ken made 474 appearances for the Hammers between 1953 and 1967, winning the FA Cup in 1964 and the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1965. Kenny began his career with Norwich under his father’s management in 1986 before moving to Plymouth in 1988. He made over 100 appearances for the Pilgrims before moving to First Division West Ham United in August 1991, initially on loan. The Browns would be the third father-and-son pairing to play for West Ham after Jim Barrett Senior and Junior, and Bill Lansdowne and Billy Lansdowne. They have since been joined by Frank Lampard Senior and Junior, Steve and Dan Potts, John and George Moncur, Rob and Elliot Lee, and Alvin and David Martin.
The 24-year-old Kenny made his debut in a 0-0 opening day draw with Luton at Upton Park on 17th August 1991 and scored his first goal for the club in his fourth appearance in a 3-1 win over Aston Villa at Upton Park 11 days later. His move was made permanent for what would become an eventual fee of £235,000. His second goal for Billy Bonds’ men was the first West Ham goal I ever saw, in a 2-1 home defeat to Manchester City on 21st September 1991. Kenny had to wait seven months for his next goal but it was one that went down in Hammers folklore – the winner in a 1-0 triumph over Manchester United which helped deny the Red Devils the title and handed it on a plate to Leeds. The Irons’ relegation would be confirmed just three days later. Kenny made 33 appearances in all competitions in 1991/92.
Predominantly a right-back but happy to fill in at left-back or in midfield, Kenny made 19 appearances the following season and scored two crucial goals in the promotion run-in. His late long-range strike at Birmingham on 3rd April 1993 sparked a dramatic comeback from 1-0 down to an eventual 2-1 win and he bagged the third in a 3-1 win at Swindon on 2nd May on the penultimate weekend of the season – the Hammers were promoted by virtue of scoring one more goal than nearest rivals Portsmouth.
Kenny found game time hard to come by in the following two seasons, making 12 appearances in each of the 1993/94 and 1994/95 campaigns. Harry Redknapp had taken over from Bonds by the time Kenny scored his last goal in claret and blue, in a 2-0 FA Cup third round win at Wycombe on 7th January 1995. A flurry of loan spells followed – Kenny made five appearances for Huddersfield in 1995 and also spent time at Reading and Southend.
One such loan spell came at Dave Bassett’s Crystal Palace, who the 28-year-old Brown joined in March 1996 – he scored on his debut for the Eagles in a 4-1 win at Millwall on 30th March 1996, a goal which would have delighted Hammers supporters almost as much as it did those of a Palace persuasion! Brown also scored in a 2-1 defeat at Derby on 28th April – Palace would finish third in the First Division, meeting Alan Curbishley’s Charlton in the Play-Off Semi-Finals. Brown scored the third and final goal of his short Palace spell in the 2-1 first leg win at The Valley on 12th May 1996, and his last appearance for the club came at Wembley in the First Division Play-Off Final against Leicester on 27th May 1996, a match the Eagles would lose 2-1. Brown returned to West Ham having scored three goals in nine appearances during his loan spell at Crystal Palace.
Brown returned to Reading on loan again early in the 1996/97 season. He joined Birmingham in a similar temporary switch before signing permanently for the Blues in a £75,000 move in January 1997. Kenny’s final appearance for West Ham had been in a 1-0 home win over Nottingham Forest back on 3rd February 1996. He had made 79 appearances for the Hammers in all competitions, scoring six goals. My video below is a compilation of Kenny’s six strikes in claret and blue.
The 29-year-old Kenny quickly realised he had made a mistake in moving to St Andrew’s, the club then being owned by David Sullivan and David Gold – he teamed up again with Bonds at Millwall just four months later. His last action in the Football League came at Gillingham, where he spent the final months of the 1998/99 season. Kenny signed for non-league Kingstonian before moving to Ireland with Portadown, then on to Wales with Barry Town. Kenny became player-coach and later manager at Barry, winning the Welsh League and Cup double in consecutive seasons. He resigned after a turbulent change of ownership which saw the club unable to pay its players. Kenny returned to England, signing for Tilbury, and ended his playing days in Spain with Torrevieja, an hour south of Benidorm.
In May 2006, Kenny was appointed Director of Football at Javea, near Alicante, and ran a summer school there with Julian Dicks. Kenny was appointed Dicks’ assistant at Grays in September 2009 and was named assistant manager at Concord Rangers in June 2012. Just a month later though, he was appointed Lead Development Coach at Barnet. After a season with the Bees, Kenny moved to Chelmsford to be assistant manager to Dean Holdsworth but departed before Christmas 2013 when Holdsworth left the club. Kenny joined Dagenham and Redbridge as Academy Manager in the summer of 2014, working with the Under-12s to Under-16s. Kenny completed his UEFA Pro Licence in the same group as Thierry Henry and Mikel Arteta. Now 53, he is currently Head of Coaching at Millwall.
Referee
The referee on Tuesday will be Stuart Attwell. The Birmingham-based official will take charge of a West Ham game for the 13th time – he has sent off a Hammers striker in two of his other 12 games officiating the Irons. He refereed our 1-0 victory at Wigan in March 2009 and our 3-1 win at Blackpool in February 2011. The 38-year-old sent off the Latics’ Lee Cattermole for a shocking challenge on Scott Parker, while the Hammers’ Carlton Cole also received his marching orders during the aforementioned win at Wigan. Even Latics boss Steve Bruce criticised the decision to dismiss the Irons striker. Attwell also issued a first-half red card to Andy Carroll in our 1-1 draw at Burnley in October 2017.
Attwell also awarded an infamous ‘phantom’ goal for Reading in a Championship match against Watford in September 2008. He was the youngest-ever Premier League referee but was demoted from the Select Group in 2012. He refereed the Hammers in August 2018 in our 2-1 home defeat to Bournemouth, when he awarded the Irons a penalty which was converted by Marko Arnautovic, and in our 3-1 League Cup home defeat to Tottenham in October 2018. Attwell awarded a dubious match-winning penalty to Manchester City at the Etihad in February 2019 and also refereed our 3-0 home win over Southampton three months later. His Hammers appointments last season were our 2-2 draw at Bournemouth in September 2019, our 3-2 home defeat to today’s opponents Newcastle last November and our 1-0 FA Cup fourth round defeat to West Brom in January. He most recently refereed West Ham in our 2-0 home defeat to Newcastle on the opening day of this season.
The VAR Official is Graham Scott.
Possible line-ups
Crystal Palace look set to be without the injured Wayne Hennessey, Martin Kelly, Nathan Ferguson, Mamadou Sakho, James Tomkins, Jeffrey Schlupp and Connor Wickham. Roy Hodgson should have Cheikhou Kouyate and Wilfried Zaha available though. New signing Jean-Philippe Mateta is still awaiting a work permit. Palace are unbeaten in their last four Premier League meetings with West Ham, winning two and drawing two. However, the Eagles are without a win in 19 league games against sides starting the day in the top half, drawing six and losing 13.
David Moyes is without Arthur Masuaku, while Darren Randolph is a doubt. Michail Antonio could become the first Hammers player to score three successive top-flight winning goals since Bobby Zamora in 2007.
Possible Crystal Palace XI: Guaita; Clyne, Cahill, Kouyate, Mitchell; Townsend, Riedewald, Milivojevic, Eze; Zaha, Ayew.
Possible West Ham United XI: Fabianski; Coufal, Dawson, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Soucek, Rice; Bowen, Benrahma, Fornals; Antonio.
Enjoy the game – Up The Hammers!