Happy 54th Birthday Peter Butler
Peter Butler was born in Halifax on the 27th August 1966. He started out at Huddersfield in 1984 and spent two years with the Terriers, including a loan spell with Cambridge. He moved to Bury but stayed for a matter of months before making a permanent switch back to Cambridge. Butler signed for Southend in 1988 and spent four years with the Shrimpers, which included a loan spell back at Huddersfield.
The 25-year-old Butler, a 5’9 tenacious, tough-tackling midfielder, joined Billy Bonds’ West Ham United in the summer of 1992 in a £175,000 move and made his debut on the 16th August 1992 in a 1-0 win at Barnsley. He became a fixture in the side alongside Martin Allen in a central midfield brimming with steel and grit, making 44 appearances in all competitions in his first season, and scored his first goal for the club in a 2-1 home win over Peterborough on 9th February 1993. His second goal of the campaign came in a 4-0 triumph over Brentford, again at Upton Park, on 17th April 1993. Butler was part of the team which clinched promotion to the Premier League on the final day of the 1992/93 season against his former club Cambridge – the match was the last played in front of the old South Bank.
‘Butts’ played in over half of the Hammers’ matches back in the big time as he savoured his first taste of top-flight football. He scored his only Premier League goal against Coventry in a 3-2 home victory on 11th December 1993 and was Man of the Match in a game watched by legendary Hungarian player Ferenc Puskas. Butler picked up a knee injury and missed the final month of 1993/94 but had more than played his part in establishing the Hammers as a Premier League side.
Butler made five appearances for new manager Harry Redknapp at the start of the following campaign, with his final match in claret and blue coming in a 1-0 home victory over Aston Villa on 17th September 1994. Butler has since stated on this very website that he “loved every minute” of his time with West Ham and “felt honoured to have put that claret and blue shirt on my back every game”. He departed for Notts County for a fee of £350,000 in October 1994. His mother was terminally ill at the time and passed away suddenly – Butler wanted to move nearer to home to be near his father who was also not well. Butler’s three goals for the Hammers can be viewed in my video below.
After three goals in 78 appearances for West Ham United, Butler spent two years at Meadow Lane, taking in loan spells at Grimsby and West Brom. He made his move to The Hawthorns permanent in 1996, making 65 appearances for the club in total. He enjoyed two-and-a-half good seasons with West Brom before being offered a coaching position at hometown team Halifax.
He left Halifax in 2000 and was offered a three-year appointment on a sporting visa in Australia, joining Sorrento in the northern suburbs of Perth, West Australia as Director of Youth Development. Butler played for the club too, hanging up his boots in 2002. From there, he took a Technical Director position at the East Malaysian FA before moving to Bali. He moved on again, this time to Singapore where he coached the Singapore Armed Forces side for eight months in 2004/05. Three months of consultancy work back with the East Malaysian FA was followed by a move to Indonesia in 2006 to coach Persiba Balikpapan. Butler, who can speak Malaysian and Indonesian, moved on to Kelantan in Malaysia in 2008 before becoming Technical Director of Burmese club Yangon United a year later.
Since 2010, Butler has managed Thai club BEC Tero Sasana, returned to Kelantan and Persiba Balikpapan for second spells and managed Malaysian outfits Terengganu and T-Team. He was manager of the Botswana national team from 2014 until 2017. He has since managed South African side Platinum Stars, and Indonesian clubs Persipura and PSMS. Butler, 54 today, is now manager of the Liberian national team.
West Ham 4-1 Macclesfield, 27th August 2008
West Ham United’s first League Cup meeting with Macclesfield Town took place 12 years ago today 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).
West Ham 2-1 Cheltenham, 27th August 2013
West Ham United’s first ever meeting with Cheltenham Town came seven years ago today, in the League Cup second round. The Hammers emerged victorious from that tie between the two clubs with a 2-1 win at the Boleyn Ground on 27th August 2013.
Ellie Goulding was number one with ‘Burn’ and Matt Damon topped the UK box office in Elysium as 23,440 were in attendance at Upton Park. The Hammers had picked up four points from their opening two Premier League matches, beating Cardiff 2-0 at home and drawing 0-0 at Newcastle. Manager Sam Allardyce gave debuts to summer signings Adrian and Razvan Rat as well as Academy product Leo Chambers, while Ravel Morrison made his first start in claret and blue.
West Ham’s Matthew Taylor and Cheltenham’s Matt Richards had both gone close with early free-kicks before Hammers’ French international midfielder Alou Diarra had to be stretchered off after 34 minutes with a damaged anterior cruciate ligament that would keep him out of action for almost four months. Morrison was then booked for diving before he legitimately won a free-kick three minutes before half-time, which was sumptuously converted by Ricardo Vaz Te.
Morrison (pictured above) doubled the lead himself just 40 seconds into the second half, twisting and turning the Town defenders on the edge of the penalty area before placing a low right-footed effort just inside Scott Brown’s post. Richards converted a penalty conceded by Adrian for a foul on Jermaine McGlashan just before the hour mark to give Mark Yates’ men hope but the Hammers secured their passage to the third round.
The Hammers would march on to knock out Cardiff, Burnley and Tottenham before being painfully beaten 9-0 over two legs by eventual 2014 League Cup winners Manchester City at the semi-final stage. Adrian would be named runner-up in the Hammer of the Year voting for 2013/14, with Mark Noble claiming the main prize for the second time.
West Ham United: Adrian, Leo Chambers, James Tomkins, George McCartney, Razvan Rat, Alou Diarra (Mohamed Diame), Jack Collison, Matthew Taylor, Joe Cole (Stewart Downing), Ravel Morrison, Ricardo Vaz Te.
Cheltenham Town: Scott Brown, Craig Braham-Barrett, Ryan Inniss, Steve Elliott, Keith Lowe, Matt Richards, Russell Penn (Ashley Vincent), Jason Taylor, Jermaine McGlashan, Sam Deering (Byron Harrison), Terry Gornell (Zack Kotwica).
Former Hammers loanee David Bentley turns 36 today – he made five appearances for the club in the autumn of 2011. Happy Birthday also to Nikica Jelavic, who scored two goals in 15 appearances for the Irons between September 2015 and February 2016 – the Croatian is 35 today and now plays for Chinese club Guizhou Zhicheng.