Blast from the past
West Ham United have met Manchester United in the League Cup twice before, with the first game coming in the third round of the competition. The Red Devils emerged victorious from that tie between the two clubs with a 1-0 win at Old Trafford in October 1985, through a Norman Whiteside goal.
Today’s blast from the past however features the only other League Cup tie between West Ham United and Manchester United, which came exactly six years ago today, on the 30th November 2010. This follows our victory over Chelsea in the previous round last month which came 22 years to the day after our only previous win over the Blues in this competition. Having won through to the quarter-finals by defeating Oxford, Sunderland and Stoke, Avram Grant’s Hammers came up against Sir Alex Ferguson’s Red Devils at Upton Park. The X Factor Finalists of 2010 were number one with their version of David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ (a charity single in aid of Help For Heroes) and George Clooney was in UK cinemas with The American as 33,551 were in attendance at Upton Park – this was the official figure recorded but many fans could not make the game due to hazardous road conditions caused by heavy snowfall.
Manchester United arrived in east London as League Cup holders, top of the Premier League and unbeaten in all competitions (Premier League, League Cup, Charity Shield and Champions League) in the 2010/11 season to that point. The Hammers, conversely, had won more games in the League Cup than they had in the Premier League and sat bottom of the table with just two league victories under their belt from their first 15 matches.
The Hammers had goalkeeper Robert Green to thank after only seven minutes when Gabriel Obertan burst into space in the box to hammer a powerful low shot which Green superbly pushed onto the post before James Tomkins quickly hacked the ball away to safety. Jonathan Spector, playing in a hitherto unfamiliar central midfield position, then surged through the heart of the visitors’ half on the quarter-hour mark before teeing up Victor Obinna. The Nigerian’s shot nestled in the net following a clear deflection and the Claret and Blue Army celebrated what they thought was a goal for a full minute. Referee Mark Clattenburg rightly ruled that it had skimmed off Spector rather than Chris Smalling though and disallowed it due to the American being in an offside position.
Spector, playing against his former club in his first match for over three months, was not to be denied though – with 22 minutes on the clock, he met a cross from Obinna and looped a precision header beyond Tomasz Kuszczak for his first ever West Ham United goal in his 97th appearance for the club. The Hammers continued to press and Spector doubled his tally eight minutes before half-time. Slaloming through United’s frozen midfield in the snow, Spector played a pass into Obinna, before running on to collect the loose ball himself and fire home unerringly past Kuszczak from close range.
At half-time the concourse below my West Stand seat echoed to the tune of ‘Walking In A Spector Wonderland’ as the snow continued to fall – one of my fondest, and utterly surreal, Boleyn memories..!
The winter wonder and snowy surrealism extended into a sumptuous second half as Carlton Cole pulled out two early Christmas crackers, Obinna whipping over a 56th-minute cross for Carlton to nod a firm header past the beleaguered Kuszczak for his 50th career goal. There was to be a fourth and final assist ten minutes later for the brilliant Obinna who turned Rafael da Silva inside out and played a pass in for Cole, who spun Jonny Evans with almost embarrassing ease before slotting a low shot into the corner to make it 4-0.
This memorable victory secured a semi-final spot, but the Hammers would be painfully knocked out by Birmingham – a 2-1 lead from the first leg was extended further by Cole in the second leg at St Andrew’s but the Blues stormed back to triumph 4-3 on aggregate after extra-time and set up a Wembley Final against Arsenal, which they won 2-1. Birmingham would sign Spector at the end of the 2010/11 campaign and he’s still there now, over 170 appearances later.
West Ham United: Robert Green, Julien Faubert, James Tomkins (Winston Reid), Matthew Upson, Tal Ben Haim, Pablo Barrera (Zavon Hines), Radoslav Kovac, Jonathan Spector, Luis Boa Morte, Victor Obinna, Carlton Cole (Junior Stanislas).
Manchester United: Tomasz Kuszczak, John O’Shea, Jonny Evans (Wes Brown), Chris Smalling, Fabio Da Silva (Rafael Da Silva), Gabriel Obertan, Anderson, Darren Fletcher, Ryan Giggs, Bebe (Federico Macheda), Javier Hernandez.
Club Connections
Michael Carrick could feature against the club with whom he began his career. A largely impressive list of players join Carrick in having turned out for both West Ham United and Manchester United over the years. These include:
Goalkeepers: Roy Carroll, Les Sealey.
Defenders: Noel Cantwell, Jonathan Spector, Rio Ferdinand.
Midfielders: Paul Ince, Luke Chadwick, Ravel Morrison.
Strikers: Billy Grassam, Stuart Pearson, Teddy Sheringham, David Bellion, Carlos Tevez.
In addition, Dave Sexton and Frank O’Farrell both played for the Hammers before going on to manage the Red Devils. Lou Macari played for Man Utd before managing West Ham.
Today’s focus is on a Scottish Under-21 international who had a sole substitute appearance on loan at West Ham United from Manchester United which, keeping with today’s theme, came in a League Cup quarter-final. Ralph Milne was born on the 13th May 1961 in Dundee and began his career with Dundee Utd, winning the Premier Division title in 1982/83, before moving to Charlton for £125,000 in January 1987. He dropped two divisions to join Bristol City in January 1988, where his form was sufficient enough to prompt Alex Ferguson to take him back to the First Division and to Manchester United in November 1988 in a £170,000 deal
With fellow Scot Gordon Strachan on the right flank, Ferguson played Milne on the left wing and he scored three goals in 22 appearances in 1988/89 – the first was a 20-yard volley on 3rd December 1988 in a 3-0 home win over former club Charlton, which ended United’s nine-match winless run. He also found the net on Boxing Day 1988 in a 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest, again at Old Trafford. The Red Devils finished 11th in the league after winning only three of their last 14 league games, Milne scoring his third and final United goal on 25th March 1989 in a 2-0 home win over Luton.
The signing of Danny Wallace and development of Lee Sharpe led to drastically reduced playing time for Milne and he was loaned out to Lou Macari’s West Ham United in January 1990. Milne had possessed great pace as well as bravery, a good work ethic, and an ability to score important goals in his younger days but long spells in reserve football and off-field issues had affected his game. The 28-year-old’s Hammers career lasted 22 minutes, appearing once as an extra-time substitute for Liam Brady in a 0-0 League Cup quarter-final replay draw at Derby on 24th January 1990. The Hammers would win the second replay with Milne as an unused substitute and progress to the semi-finals, where they would be defeated 6-3 on aggregate by Oldham.
Milne remained on Manchester United’s payroll until June 1991 when he was released. His heavy drinking and gambling addiction had become serious problems and, after three goals in 30 appearances for the Red Devils, he had trials in Turkey and Denmark before signing for Sing Tao in Hong Kong, where he spent a year – he quit football at the age of 32. Milne continued to drink to extreme excess and was accused of regularly beating his partner when intoxicated. Ralph Milne died last year, on the 6th September 2015, of complications from liver problems. He was 54 years old.
Referee
Wednesday’s referee will be Chester-based Mike Jones, who will take on his first Hammers appointment of the season – his most recent match involving West Ham was the 2-1 final-day defeat at Stoke in May. The omens do not bode well for West Ham when Jones takes charge of games against Manchester United or quarter-finals. The 48-year-old has refereed the Hammers for two previous two Premier League games at Old Trafford – the 3-1 defeat in 2013/14 and the 1-0 loss the season before.
Jones is perhaps more infamous for a shocking display during our FA Cup quarter-final defeat at Stoke in 2011, when he allowed both goals for the home side to stand despite blatant infringements on Matthew Upson and Thomas Hitzlsperger respectively. He also awarded the Potters a penalty for a Matthew Etherington dive (which was saved by Rob Green) and astonishingly gave Stoke a free-kick for a tangle which should have seen James Tomkins awarded a penalty.
Possible line-ups
Manchester United are without midfielders Paul Pogba and Marouane Fellaini through suspension and centre-backs Chris Smalling and Eric Bailly through injury. Anthony Martial has had three shots on target against West Ham and scored from all three of them.
West Ham United welcome back vice-captain Winston Reid but Sam Byram, Reece Oxford, Arthur Masuaku and Gokhan Tore remain on the injured list, while Diafra Sakho is back on the sidelines. Andy Carroll is back in contention having resumed full training with the first team, with Super Slav stating that the number nine could get 20 minutes to half an hour of playing time this evening. The last time the Hammers scored more than one goal in a game at Old Trafford was in 1986, 30 years ago.
With one eye on Saturday’s home encounter with Arsenal, Michail Antonio is one yellow card away from missing the match.
Possible Manchester United XI: Romero; Valencia, Jones, Blind, Shaw; Carrick, Herrera; Mkhitaryan, Rooney, Martial; Ibrahimovic.
Possible West Ham United XI: Adrian; Kouyate, Reid, Ogbonna; Fernandes, Nordtveit, Obiang, Cresswell; Ayew, Payet; Fletcher.
Enjoy the game – Come On You Irons!