Blast from the past
West Ham United have met Macclesfield Town in the League Cup on one previous occasion, at Upton Park in front of 10,055 on 27th August 2008. Katy Perry was number one with ‘I Kissed A Girl’ and Hellboy II: The Golden Army topped the UK box office as the Premier League Hammers emerged victorious against Keith Alexander’s League Two Silkmen with a 4-1 win after extra-time.
Macclesfield took the lead after just five minutes when Ahmed Deen swung over a set-piece and Gareth Evans stooped at the near post to head into the roof of the net, despite George McCartney’s efforts on the line. Hammers boss Alan Curbishley was then forced into an early change when Valon Behrami suffered a head injury and was replaced by debutant Zavon Hines. Dean Ashton hit the crossbar before half-time and it took the Irons until the 74th minute to grab their equaliser, Julien Faubert crossing for Lee Bowyer to head past Jonny Brain in the Macclesfield goal. Izak Reid was sent off for a second bookable offence before full-time, meaning the visitors would have to play out extra-time with ten men.
West Ham took the lead for the first time on the night ten minutes into the first period of extra-time – Faubert again crossed from the right, Ashton nodded back across goal and substitute Carlton Cole (pictured above) headed in. Fellow sub Hines made it three five minutes later when he turned home Ashton’s shot across goal before a third substitute, Kyel Reid, cut in from the left to fire what would transpire to be his only goal for West Ham United in the 117th minute. The goals from this match can be seen in my video below.
Curbishley’s Hammers progressed to the third round but, by the time the tie at Watford came round, Curbs had resigned and Gianfranco Zola had taken over. Zola’s side lost 1-0 to the Hornets at Vicarage Road. Manchester United would win the 2009 League Cup, beating Tottenham on penalties in the Final. Scott Parker was voted Hammer of the Year, with Rob Green runner-up.
West Ham United: Rob Green, Valon Behrami (Zavon Hines), Calum Davenport, Matthew Upson, George McCartney (Kyel Reid), Julien Faubert, Hayden Mullins, Lee Bowyer, Luis Boa Morte, Freddie Sears (Carlton Cole), Dean Ashton.
Macclesfield: Jonny Brain, Shaun Brisley, Sean Hessey, Richard Walker, Izak Reid, Jamie Tolley, Lee Bell, Danny Thomas (Simon Yeo), Ahmed Deen, Gareth Evans (John Rooney), Francis Green (Jordan Hadfield).
Club Connections
Danny Whitehead has played for West Ham United and Macclesfield, while Paul Ince played for both clubs and also managed the Silkmen.
Today’s focus, though, falls on a winger who enjoyed playing spells at both clubs, a brief caretaker manager spell with the Silkmen and a coaching stint with the Hammers. Kevin Keen was born in Amersham on 25th February 1967 and began his career at Wycombe, making his debut in September 1982 at the tender age of 15 years and 209 days. He played three games for Wycombe before joining West Ham United as a 16-year-old apprentice, signing professional forms in March 1984. The son of former QPR, Luton and Watford midfielder Mike Keen, the 19-year-old Kevin made his debut as a substitute for Geoff Pike in a 5-2 home defeat against Liverpool on 6th September 1986 and scored his first goal for the Hammers in a 4-1 FA Cup third round replay win over Leyton Orient on 31st January 1987. Under John Lyall, Keen made 17 appearances in 1986/87 (scoring one goal), 25 appearances in 1987/88 (two goals) and 33 appearances in 1988/89 (four goals).
1989/90 was a stellar season for Keen personally as he made 57 appearances under Lou Macari and later Billy Bonds, scoring 13 goals. He scored with a stunning effort from wide on the goalline, lofting a curling effort back over the goalkeeper and into the net in a 5-0 win over Sunderland. Keen also scored his only double for the Hammers in a 4-2 win over Barnsley on New Year’s Day 1990.
Keen scored two goals in 51 matches in 1990/91 as the Hammers won promotion but scored only once in 39 games as the club were immediately relegated in 1991/92. He played a major role in ensuring the Hammers won promotion to the Premier League in 1992/93, being ever-present in league and cup and scoring seven goals in 56 appearances, ending the season as runner-up to Steve Potts in the Hammer of the Year poll. This was a significant final seal of approval for Keen, who had struggled to win over some fans in the late 1980s. His last goal for the Irons came in a 4-0 home win over Brentford on 17th April 1993, with his final match as a Hammer being the promotion-clinching 2-0 win over Cambridge at Upton Park on 8th May 1993. Keen was one of my personal Hammers heroes during my childhood – I loved watching him come inside from the wing and spray one of his trademark cross-field, outside-of-the-foot passes. A class player who always gave his all.
Despite his key role in the Hammers’ promotion, Keen was not to join his team-mates in experiencing Premier League football. West Ham had allowed his contract to run down and were only offering marginally improved terms. After 278 appearances in all competitions, and 30 goals, the 26-year-old Keen opted to stay in the second tier and signed for Wolves for £600,000. 27 of Keen’s 30 Hammers goals can be seen in my video below.
After just over a year, Keen was on the move again, this time to Stoke for £300,000 where he teamed up with his former West Ham manager Macari. Keen remained with the Potters until the turn of the millennium before leaving for Peter Davenport’s Macclesfield on a free transfer. He made his debut in a 3-1 home defeat to Middlesbrough in the third round of the League Cup in September 2000. Davenport left the club in December 2000, with Gil Prescott taking over. Prescott became Director of Football in October 2001, with Keen taking over as caretaker manager for a month until David Moss took over the Moss Road managerial reigns in November 2001. Two months later, Keen appeared against West Ham during his second and final season with Macclesfield, with the Hammers running out 3-0 winners in a televised FA Cup third round tie on 6th January 2002. He was particularly delighted to receive a warm reception from the travelling claret and blue army when he was taking a corner.
The 35-year-old Keen was released in the summer of 2002 after making 71 appearances for the Silkmen. He rejoined West Ham in July 2002 as Under-17 academy coach under Glenn Roeder and was later appointed reserve team coach before becoming first-team coach in October 2006 under Alan Pardew. He reverted to his previous role as reserve team coach when Glynn Snodin was appointed as first-team coach by Alan Curbishley in June 2007. He was announced as caretaker manager after Curbishley’s resignation, taking charge of the 3-2 away defeat to West Brom on 13th September 2008 before handing over the manager’s role to Gianfranco Zola. Keen was appointed again as caretaker manager for the last game of the 2010/11 season, a 3-0 home defeat to Sunderland, following the post-relegation sacking of Avram Grant.
In July 2011, Keen left West Ham to join Liverpool as first-team coach under Kenny Dalglish. Keen left Liverpool after the arrival of Brendan Rodgers as manager and joined West Brom as joint assistant head coach under Steve Clarke, who Keen had previously worked with at both West Ham and Liverpool. Keen started 2014/15 as Head of Coaching and Under-18s Manager at Fulham before Clarke appointed him as his assistant manager at Reading in December 2014.
Keen was handed his first permanent managerial position at Colchester in December 2015. The club were relegated to League Two at the end of the season and Keen left the club by mutual consent. Keen teamed up again with Pardew at Crystal Palace in the summer of 2016. Now 51, Keen is currently assistant manager to another former Hammer, Chris Powell, at League One Southend.
Referee
Wednesday’s referee will be Craig Pawson; 2018/19 is Pawson’s seventh as a Premier League referee. In 2014/15 he refereed West Ham’s 3-1 home win over Liverpool and sent off Adrian in our 0-0 draw at Southampton, a decision that was later overturned. He was also the man in the middle for our 4-1 League Cup home defeat to Wigan six seasons ago and our 3-1 loss at Stoke’s Britannia Stadium five seasons ago. His Hammers appointments in 2015/16 were both at the Boleyn Ground, for our 2-2 draw with Manchester City in January 2016 and the 3-3 draw with Arsenal three months later.
Pawson did not referee the Hammers at all last season. His matches in charge of West Ham United in 2016/17 saw him send off Harry Arter as the Hammers defeated Bournemouth 1-0 in August 2016, while he also officiated in our 2-1 home win over Chelsea in the fourth round of the League Cup in two months later. He also refereed our 5-1 home defeat to Arsenal in December 2016. In his most recent match in charge of the Hammers in February 2017, Pawson awarded Watford a penalty and sent off Michail Antonio as the Irons drew 1-1 at Vicarage Road.
Possible line-ups
West Ham United manager Manuel Pellegrini could hand starts to Adrian, Aaron Cresswell, Carlos Sanchez, Robert Snodgrass and Lucas Perez, while Conor Coventry, Joe Powell and Grady Diangana could be called up from the Under-23s. Winston Reid, Jack Wilshere, Manuel Lanzini, Marko Arnautovic, Chicharito and Andy Carroll are ruled out. West Ham have never featured in the League Cup fourth round in three consecutive seasons before but would do so should they eliminate Macclesfield tonight.
Macclesfield manager Mark Yates was the visiting manager when the Hammers knocked Cheltenham out of the League Cup at Upton Park in August 2013. Goalkeeper Kieran O’Hara is on loan from Manchester United, centre-half Fiacre Kelleher and winger Malachi Napa are on loan from Oxford, while midfielder Callum Maycock is on loan from Coventry. Captain and left-back David Fitzpatrick has made over 100 appearances for the Silkmen, while 37-year-old midfielder Danny Whitaker has played over 400 matches for the club over two spells. Forward Nathan Blissett is the nephew of former Watford and England striker Luther Blissett. Striker Harry Smith signed in the summer from Millwall. The Silkmen have defeated Bradford and Walsall to reach the third round, beating both League One sides on penalties. Macclesfield have won all nine of the penalty shoot-outs they have participated in. This is the Silkmen’s first appearance in the third round of the League Cup. The last League Two side to eliminate a Premier League in the third round were Northampton Town in September 2010 against Liverpool, winning 4-2 on penalties after a 2-2 draw.
Possible West Ham United XI: Adrian; Fredericks, Diop, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Sanchez, Noble; Snodgrass, Anderson, Antonio; Perez.
Possible Macclesfield XI: O’Hara; Pearson, Kelleher, Grimes, Fitzpatrick; Maycock, Evans, Whitaker; Blissett, Smith, Napa.
Enjoy the game – Come On You Irons!