Blast from the past
West Ham United have met Wolves in the FA Cup on two previous occasions, the first meeting in the famous old competition being at Molineux in front of 17,000 on the 5th February 1910. The Hammers, representing the Southern League First Division, emerged as surprise victors from the second round encounter against their hosts from the Second Division of the Football League with a 5-1 win. West Ham’s first England international, George Webb (pictured), grabbed a hat-trick with Danny Shea bagging a brace.
The Athletic News, the country’s main football newspaper of the time, wrote: “To say that West Ham sprung a surprise at Wolverhampton would be to put it mildly. The fact is that most of those who assembled at the Molineux Grounds were inwardly convinced that their favourites would, in racing phraseology, romp home. But right from the kick off they were disillusioned”.
The Hammers progressed to the third round, only to be knocked out by fellow Southern League First Division side Queens Park Rangers in a 1-0 replay defeat at the Boleyn Ground. Newcastle won the 1910 FA Cup, beating Barnsley in a replay at Goodison Park after the first match was drawn at Crystal Palace.
West Ham United: George Kitchen, Fred Shreeve, Robert Fairman, Thomas Randall, Frank Piercy, James Blackburn, Herbert Ashton, Fred Massey, George Webb, Danny Shea, Thomas Caldwell.
Aside from this second round victory in 1910, West Ham also beat Wolves 3-1 at Molineux in a fourth round tie in 2004. This Saturday will be the first and last time the two teams meet at the Boleyn Ground in the FA Cup.
Club Connections
West Ham United and Wolverhampton Wanderers have shared a number of players over the years. Those who have appeared for both clubs include:
Goalkeeper: Noel Dwyer.
Defenders: Joe Gallagher, Gary Breen, Roger Johnson.
Midfielders: Bertie Lutton, Kevin Keen, Robbie Slater, Nigel Quashie, Matt Jarvis, Kyel Reid, Harry Hooper, Shaun Newton.
Strikers: Henri Camara, Jeremie Aliadiere, Robbie Keane, David Connolly, Bobby Gould, Carlton Cole, Frank Nouble, Mike Small, David Kelly, Marlon Harewood.
With a nod to the final season at the Boleyn Ground, this season’s match previews for home games will focus on one of the more high-profile names to have played for both clubs. Today’s focus is on a former England international who started his career with the Hammers before playing for Wolves in the twilight of his career. Paul Ince made his West Ham United debut in a Full Members Cup match at the Boleyn Ground on 25th November 1986 as the Hammers fell to a 2-1 defeat against Chelsea. He made his league debut five days later as a substitute in a 4-0 loss at Newcastle and scored his first Hammers goal just six days after that, in a 3-1 home win over Southampton which took the Irons into the First Division’s top five.
Ince’s next goal arrived ten months later, in a 1-1 home draw with Charlton in October 1987 as West Ham’s lack of investment following the success of 1985/86 started to take its eventually destructive toll – the Hammers were now entrenched in the bottom half of the table. Ince was establishing himself in the first team, displaying qualities of stamina, good passing ability, pace and uncompromising tackling. He scored again in a 2-1 home win over Newcastle just before Christmas 1987 and came off the bench to score in a 1-1 home draw with Luton in early January 1988.
1988/89 was a dark season in the history of West Ham but, despite the club’s relegation at the end of the campaign, the season had been a personal success for Ince. He scored four goals in as many games in November/December 1988 – the first in a 1-1 draw in the Full Members Cup at Watford, two more in a 4-1 League Cup fourth round triumph over Liverpool at Upton Park (video below) and the winner in a 1-0 victory at Millwall. Ince went on to score in the 2-1 League Cup quarter-final home win over Aston Villa which set up a disastrous semi-final against Luton, with the Hammers losing 5-0 on aggregate. With the Hammers locked in an ultimately vain fight for top-flight survival, Ince went on another mini scoring run in March 1989, notching three goals in four games – these came in a 1-1 home draw with Coventry, a 3-1 defeat at Norwich in an FA Cup quarter-final replay and a stunning strike to clinch the points in a 1-0 win at Aston Villa after he had carried the ball from his own half. Ince was voted the Hammer of the Year for 1988/89.
With the Hammers relegated and Ince’s mentor, John Lyall, sacked, Ince’s agent began angling for a move. Lyall had helped Ince through troubled school times, eventually signing him as a YTS trainee on leaving school in 1984 and Ince struggled to see a future for himself at the club without such an influential figure in his life. Manchester United agreed a fee of around £1m for the 21-year-old midfielder before controversy hit the deal. Ince takes up the story, in an interview with Four Four Two:
“I spoke to Alex Ferguson and the deal was close to being done. I then went on holiday, and my agent at the time, Ambrose Mendy, said it wasn’t worth me coming back to do a picture in a United shirt when the deal was completed, so I should do one before I left, and it would be released when the deal was announced. Lawrence Luster of the Daily Star took the picture and put it in their library. Soon after, their sister paper, the Daily Express, were looking for a picture of me playing for West Ham and found the one of me in the United shirt in the pile. They published it and all hell broke loose. I came back from holiday to discover West Ham fans were going mad. It wasn’t really my fault. I was only a kid, I did what my agent told me to do, then took all the stick for it."
Ince’s final appearance came under Lou Macari in a 1-1 Second Division draw at Stoke in August 1989. After 95 appearances and 12 goals in claret and blue, he completed his move to Old Trafford where he won the Premier League twice, the FA Cup twice, the League Cup once and the Charity Shield three times. He also won the European Cup Winners’ Cup and European Super Cup whilst with the Red Devils. Ince first returned to the Boleyn Ground in February 1994, scoring a late equaliser in a 2-2 draw after being on the receiving end of a hostile reception. West Ham fans would have the last laugh though as Ince and his Manchester United side were denied the Premier League title at Upton Park on the last day of the 1994/95 season, with thousands of fans holding aloft mini-banners emblazoned with the word ‘Judas’. Ince moved on to play for Inter Milan, Liverpool and Middlesbrough as well as becoming the first black player to captain England, for whom he was capped 53 times, scoring two goals.
Ince joined Wolverhampton Wanderers in the summer of 2002, where he would be playing outside a national top division for the first time since his one appearance there for West Ham in 1989. Ince was part of the Wolves team which won promotion to the Premier League as Division One Play-Off winners in his first season. They were relegated after just one campaign in the top flight but Ince helped them to a memorable 1-0 victory over his former club Manchester United in mid-January 2004 and chose to remain at Molineux after the club’s demotion.
Ince was expected to retire at the end of the 2004/05 season but he changed his mind halfway through the season following the appointment of his former England manager Glenn Hoddle as manager of a Wolves side who were struggling at the wrong end of the league. Wolves climbed up to ninth in the final table and, in June 2005, he signed a new one-year contract with Wolves. In April 2006, he announced that he wanted to continue playing for Wolves for a further season after speaking with his close friend and then-West Ham player Teddy Sheringham. However, following Ince’s failure to get the manager’s job at Wolves in July 2006 on Hoddle’s resignation, the newly appointed Mick McCarthy decided not to offer Ince a new contract. Ince moved on to Swindon, where he was named player-coach.
Ince went on to become player-manager of Macclesfield and has since had two spells as manager at MK Dons. He has also managed Blackburn, Notts County and Blackpool. He returned to the Boleyn Ground as a manager in August 2008, only to see his Blackburn side defeated 4-1 by Alan Curbishley’s Hammers. Now 48, Ince is currently without a club but his son Tom, who scored in the 2012 Play-Off Final against the Hammers, is currently playing for Derby.
Referee
The referee on Saturday will be Anthony Taylor – this will be the fourth time the Hammers have been allocated Taylor this season after he took charge of our defeat at Tottenham, as well as our win over Newcastle which came just three games after he had controversially sent off Adrian against Leicester. The Cheshire-based official was the referee who had not one, but two red cards rescinded from the same game after he had sent off Carlton Cole and Darron Gibson in the Hammers’ 2-1 home defeat to Everton in December 2012. He was also in charge when awarding Liverpool a controversial, and ultimately match-winning penalty, against the Irons in April 2014. There was also controversy surrounding Guy Demel’s equaliser for West Ham in that game. Taylor officiated in three matches involving the Hammers last season, those being the 2-0 home win over QPR, the 2-0 away defeat to Manchester City and the 1-1 FA Cup third round tie at Everton. He also replaced the injured Chris Foy during the second half of the 3-0 defeat at Arsenal.
Possible line-ups
It is to be hoped that Slaven Bilic will put out a strong side considering the good form of the opposition. Manuel Lanzini and Diafra Sakho are injured, while Victor Moses is not yet ready for a first-team return and Winston Reid may not be risked.
Ex-Millwall manager Kenny Jackett has stated he would welcome a cup run and that he will name his strongest available side for the trip to east London. Winger Jordan Graham, who has impressed for Wolves since returning from a loan spell at Oxford, has been rated at 50-50 with an ankle injury. New signing Michal Zyro could start if Graham misses out. Goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, on loan from Arsenal, is fit and available but England Under-21 centre-back, and former West Ham Academy player, Kortney Hause has been ruled out. Wolves have won their last three matches without conceding a goal, moving them to 11th in the Championship.
Possible West Ham United XI: Adrian; Jenkinson, Collins, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Noble, Obiang; Antonio, Payet, Valencia; Carroll.
Possible Wolves XI: Ikeme; Iorfa, Ebanks-Landell, Batth, Doherty; Coady, McDonald; Henry, Edwards, Graham; Afobe.
Enjoy the game – Come On You Irons!