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Blast from the past
Today’s blast from the past features an inter-war Second Division victory at the home of this evening’s opponents, Manchester United. It arrived on Christmas Day 1922, a 2-1 win at Old Trafford in front of 17,500 spectators the day after Ava Gardner was born.
This match was the first ever league meeting between the two clubs. Syd King’s Hammers went into the game on the back of a seven-match unbeaten run, while John Chapman’s Manchester United had only won two of their previous 12 games. Goals from inside-right Billy Brown and inside-left Billy Moore gave the Irons victory, while Scottish inside-left Arthur Lochhead was on target for the hosts. The Red Devils got their revenge the following day with a 2-0 Boxing Day win at Upton Park.
The 22-year-old Brown (pictured) had been plucked from local football in his native North East with Hetton two years before but it wasn’t until this 1922/23 campaign that he won a regular first-team place, at inside-right. He scored 12 goals in 34 games in this breakthrough season and won his only England cap in 1923, scoring against Belgium at The Hawthorns. He moved to Chelsea in 1924, having scored 20 goals in 71 appearances for the Hammers. Brown later played for Fulham, Stockport and Hartlepools. He returned to the North East and played cricket for Blackhall, signing in 1933 and becoming captain of the team. He ended his time with the club when he took on a role as a colliery baths superintendent at Easington Colliery in County Durham, but continued his association with cricket by becoming an umpire. Billy Brown died in Easington aged 85 on 7th January 1985.
The Irons finished 1922/23 in second place in the Second Division, winning a first-ever promotion to the top flight. Manchester United finished fourth and Notts County topped the division. Liverpool won the league title. The Irons also reached the FA Cup Final, where they lost to Bolton in the first final played at Wembley. The club’s top scorer was Vic Watson with 27 goals from 50 appearances.
Manchester United: Jack Mew, Charlie Radford, Jack Silcock, Neil McBain, Frank Barson, Jack Grimwood, Bert Cartman, Joe Spence, Ernie Goldthorpe, Arthur Lochhead, Teddy Partridge.
West Ham United: Ted Hufton, Billy Henderson, Jack Young, Syd Bishop, George Kay, Jack Tresadern, Dick Richards, Billy Brown, Vic Watson, Billy Moore, Jimmy Ruffell.
Club Connections
On-loan Jesse Lingard cannot play for West Ham United against his parent club. Hammers manager David Moyes returns to the club he managed for most of the 2013/14 season, while Manchester United coach Michael Carrick welcomes his first professional club to Old Trafford. A largely impressive list of players join the trio in having represented both West Ham United and Manchester United over the years. These include:
Goalkeepers: Roy Carroll, Les Sealey.
Defenders: Noel Cantwell, Patrice Evra, Fred Milnes, Jonathan Spector, Rio Ferdinand.
Midfielders: James McCrae, Bill McCartney, Paul Ince, Ralph Milne, Ravel Morrison.
Strikers: Charlie Mackie, Billy Grassam, Stuart Pearson, Javier Hernandez, Ted MacDougall, Teddy Sheringham, David Bellion, Carlos Tevez.
In addition, Frank O’Farrell and Dave Sexton played for the Hammers before going on to manage the Red Devils. Lou Macari played for the Old Trafford club before managing the Irons.
Today’s focus, though, falls on a player who started his career at Manchester United before joining West Ham United. Luke Chadwick was born in Cambridge on 18th November 1980 and came through the youth system at Manchester United. He made his debut for Sir Alex Ferguson’s Red Devils aged 18 in a 3-0 League Cup third round defeat at Aston Villa on 13th October 1999. Chadwick spent the first half of the following campaign on loan at Antwerp in Belgium but returned to score his first goal for Manchester United in a 3-0 Premier League win at Bradford on 13th January 2001; his second and final strike for the club secured a point in a 1-1 draw at fierce rivals Leeds on 3rd March of the same year. Chadwick also experienced Champions League football with the Red Devils during the 2000/01 season.
Chadwick spent most of the second half of the 2002/03 campaign on loan at second tier Reading, who were then managed by Alan Pardew, before joining Championship side Burnley in another loan deal for the entirety of the 2003/04 season. Chadwick’s final appearance for Manchester United had been on 3rd December 2002, at Turf Moor in a 2-0 League Cup fourth round win against the Clarets. He had made 39 appearances for the Red Devils, scoring two goals.
The 23-year-old Chadwick signed for the aforementioned Pardew’s West Ham on a free transfer at the start of the 2004/05 season and made his debut as a substitute in a 1-0 home win against Reading on 10th August 2004, setting up Teddy Sheringham for the late winner. He played the majority of games before Christmas on the right wing and scored his only goal for the club in a 1-1 draw with Leeds in a televised Friday night match, opening the scoring by bundling home after a Marlon Harewood header had been blocked (this goal can be seen in my video below). Leeds ruined Chadwick’s night however, equalising through an injury-time penalty by David Healy after the Northern Ireland striker had blatantly dived to win the spot-kick. Injury disrupted the rest of Chadwick’s season as the Hammers won promotion back to the top flight by beating Preston in the play-off final in Cardiff. His final appearance for the Hammers was as a substitute in a 1-0 win at Stoke on 19th April 2005.
After 36 appearances and one goal for West Ham, Chadwick joined Stoke, initially on loan at the start of the 2005/06 season. Following impressive performances, this move was made permanent the following January for a fee of £100,000. Chadwick won many admirers amongst the Stoke faithful but fitness issues again caught up with him, fainting due to dehydration against Southend on the opening day of the 2006/07 season. Chadwick’s former assistant manager at Upton Park, Peter Grant, took the winger to Norwich as Stoke more than doubled their money on the England Under-21 international.
After leaving Norwich in 2008, Chadwick made 210 appearances for MK Dons, scoring 17 goals, before getting his dream move to boyhood club Cambridge United in the spring of 2014. Discussing his debut for Cambridge against Welling in March that year, Chadwick told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire:
“I remember coming on in a Champions League quarter-final against Munich. That was quite a nerve-wracking and an incredible experience. But this is the biggest one now. The missus buys me the Cambridge kit every Christmas or my birthday. I’ve had it the last 10 to 15 years, so to wear one in a proper game was a great feeling. I still think I’ve got years left in me. My body will tell me when it is time to stop. Ideally, I’ve got three, four, five or six years left. You never know in this game, I just want to be successful here.”
Chadwick helped Cambridge win promotion back into the Football League in May 2014 after a nine-year exile for the club and played for them in League Two in the 2014/15 season. After leaving Cambridge, Chadwick signed for Isthmian League Division One North side Soham Town Rangers in November 2015 and spent one season at Soham. Now 40, Chadwick coaches for the Football Fun Factory.
Referee
The referee tonight will be Christopher Kavanagh. The Manchester-born official has refereed the Hammers on 11 previous occasions, most recently for our 1-0 home win against Burnley in January. Kavanagh was also in charge of our 3-0 defeat at Chelsea the previous month. He also refereed the Irons on our last two trips to Vicarage Road, one of which was a 4-1 win in May 2019, when he sent off the Hornets’ Jose Holebas and awarded the Irons a penalty, converted by Mark Noble after a foul on Michail Antonio. Prior to that, Kavanagh officiated our 2-0 defeat at Chelsea in April 2019 and our 2-0 home win over Newcastle the month before, a game in which he also awarded the Hammers a penalty for a foul on Chicharito which was again converted by Noble.
Kavanagh had previously been in charge for our 2-2 home draw with Brighton in January 2019, our 1-1 draw at Huddersfield in November 2018 and our 1-0 home defeat to Wolves in September 2018. He was the man in the middle for our 2-0 win at Leicester in May 2018 and also issued Arthur Masuaku with a red card for spitting in an FA Cup fourth round defeat at Wigan in January 2018.
Possible line-ups
Manchester United are without Phil Jones, Paul Pogba, Donny van de Beek, Juan Mata, Edinson Cavani and Anthony Martial, while Marcus Rashford is a doubt. David De Gea has returned from Spain following the birth of his first child but it’s unclear whether his period of quarantine will end before today. The Red Devils have won only one of their six home league fixtures this season against teams who began the weekend in the top half. Manchester United are looking to complete their first league double over West Ham since 2013/14, when they were managed by David Moyes.
West Ham United are without Darren Randolph, Angelo Ogbonna, Arthur Masuaku and Andriy Yarmolenko while Ryan Fredericks is a doubt. On-loan Jesse Lingard is ineligible to play against his parent club. The Hammers have picked up just three points at Old Trafford in their last 11 visits, stretching back to May 2007. West Ham’s four Premier League away defeats this season were at Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City.
Possible Manchester United XI: Henderson; Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Shaw; Matic, Fred, McTominay; Diallo, Fernandes; Greenwood.
Possible West Ham United XI: Fabianski; Coufal, Dawson, Diop, Cresswell; Rice, Soucek; Bowen, Noble, Fornals; Antonio.
Enjoy the game – Come On You Irons!