Blast from the past
Tuesday 30th March 1982 – The Goombay Dance Band were number one with ‘Seven Tears’ and West Ham United were ensuring it was the Swans who were sobbing in south Wales as Francois van der Elst scored the winner in a 1-0 victory over this weekend’s opponents Swansea City in front of 20,272 at the Vetch Field.
Belgian attacker van der Elst scored twice for Anderlecht against West Ham as we lost the European Cup Winners’ Cup Final 4-2 in 1976. He signed for the Hammers from the New York Cosmos in January 1982 and this strike at Swansea was his fifth goal in ten games. He scored 17 goals in 70 appearances for the Irons before returning to his homeland to sign for Lokeren.
John Lyall’s Hammers would finish 9th in the First Division in 1981/82, while Swansea would end the campaign in 6th having led the table more than once in their first season at the top level.
West Ham United: Phil Parkes, Ray Stewart, Alvin Martin, Neil Orr, Frank Lampard, Francois van der Elst, Paul Allen, Trevor Brooking, Alan Devonshire, David Cross, Paul Goddard.
Club Connections
A small number of players have worn the shirts of both West Ham United and Swansea City. These include:
Goalkeeper: Noel Dwyer.
Defenders: Andy Melville, Shaun Byrne.
Midfielders: Matthew Rush, Frank Lampard Junior.
Striker: Lee Chapman.
John Bond also represented both clubs, playing for the Hammers and managing the Swans.
Today’s focus though is on a player who played for both clubs in the early stages of his career. Frank Nouble began his career at Chelsea, playing for the Blues from Under-12 to reserve-team level. Nouble, a 6’3 striker, joined Gianfranco Zola’s West Ham in the summer of 2009 and made his debut as a substitute on the opening day of 2009/10, a 2-0 win at Wolves. He made six appearances from the bench before making his first start for the Hammers in a 2-1 FA Cup third round defeat at home to Arsenal in early January 2010. His first league start came two weeks later in a 0-0 draw at Aston Villa and this was followed later in the month by a further start at Portsmouth and a first league start at home, a 0-0 draw against Sam Allardyce’s Blackburn. Nouble ended the 2009/10 season with two loan spells, at West Brom and Swindon.
Nouble joined Swansea in September 2010, signing for Brendan Rodgers’ Championship side in a three-month loan deal. He made his debut in a 2-0 win against Scunthorpe and scored his first senior goal four days after his 19th birthday, netting what proved to be the winning goal with his first touch a minute after coming off the bench in a 3-2 win at Watford. After six appearances and one goal, Nouble’s stay at Swansea was cut short the following month due to growing injury concerns as West Ham struggled badly in the Premier League.
Nouble came off the bench in the 3-1 Boxing Day win at Fulham and started the 2-0 FA Cup third round win over Barnsley under Avram Grant. His appearances from the bench in the 3-0 league loss at the Emirates and in the 3-2 FA Cup fourth round win over Nottingham Forest preceded another loan move, this time at Barnsley where he spent two months. He joined Charlton in March 2011 in another temporary switch, spending the rest of the season at The Valley.
New West Ham boss Sam Allardyce gave Nouble an opportunity from the bench as the Hammers were knocked out of the League Cup by Aldershot in August 2011 before the big striker was again on the move, this time to Gillingham where he enjoyed the best spell of his career to date, scoring five goals in 13 games. Nouble returned to West Ham in December 2011, starting and scoring his only goal for the Hammers on New Year’s Eve in a 2-1 defeat at Derby (video below). Two sub appearances against Coventry and at Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup followed before League Two Crawley made an offer to sign the striker permanently in the latter stages of the January window of 2012. The offer was accepted by the Hammers but rejected by the player. Nouble’s final appearance for West Ham came from the bench in a torrid 5-1 defeat at Ipswich on 31st January 2012 – he re-joined Barnsley on loan and was then released by the Hammers following promotion to the Premier League in the summer of 2012. He had made 19 appearances for West Ham in all competitions, scoring one goal.
Nouble has since played for Wolves and, most notably, for Ipswich before a loan spell at Coventry was made permanent. Still only 24, he now plays in China for Tianjin Songjiang under former Brazil and Real Madrid manager Vanderlei Luxemburgo.
Referee
Sunday’s referee will be Lee Mason from Greater Manchester. Mason is yet to take charge of a Hammers match this season but refereed three Premier League matches involving the Hammers last term, those being the 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa, the 1-0 home win over Sunderland and the 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford when he sent off Wayne Rooney, denied the Hammers a penalty when Morgan Amalfitano’s cross struck Radamel Falcao’s arm and disallowed Kevin Nolan’s last-minute strike for a marginal offside. Mason was also the man in the middle for our 1-0 FA Cup win at Bristol City in January. He also officiated in four of our games in 2013/14, sending off two of our players (Mark Noble against Everton and James Tomkins at Cardiff) and disallowing a perfectly good Stewart Downing equaliser at Crystal Palace.
Possible line-ups
Managerless Swansea City will be without French midfielder Franck Tabanou and Portuguese forward Eder with both set to be out until the New Year through thigh and ankle injuries respectively. Jonjo Shelvey is a doubt with a calf strain. The Swans haven’t won at home since August.
Slaven Bilic will be without groin injury victim Andy Carroll, which is a huge blow considering the striker’s previous performances against the Swans. Carroll is set to return on Boxing Day against Aston Villa. Nikica Jelavic and Enner Valencia will compete for Carroll’s place. Winston Reid, Manuel Lanzini, Victor Moses, Dimitri Payet and Diafra Sakho are also all unavailable. West Ham are unbeaten in their last five matches against Swansea, winning three and drawing two.
Possible Swansea City XI: Fabianski; Rangel, Fernandez, Williams, Taylor; Britton, Cork; Ayew, Sigurdsson, Routledge; Gomis.
Possible West Ham United XI: Adrian; Tomkins, Collins, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Kouyate, Song, Noble; Antonio, Zarate; Valencia.
Enjoy the game – Come On You Irons!