With the season nearing an end, it’s clear that with Fulham, Chelsea and Crystal Palace still to play we will have a few London derbies to contest. I suppose I could include Luton in this mix due to a certain fellow writer having an irrational hatred of them, but with them lying outside the Greater London area, I don’t think they really count.
So maybe it’s opportune to look at the history of West Ham and the London derby. Our first recorded derby was in September 1898 in the Thames and Medway league, a 3-0 defeat to Tottenham.
No doubt the analysts out there will tell me I’m wrong on that one but I’ve never claimed to be a statistician. Ranking our greatest rivalries is an interesting one, as history often dictates that this can change due to such factors as how often we play our local rivals.
Leyton Orient are our closest league neighbours but Tottenham Hotspur, a little further away, have recently become our nearest and dearest. But if you ask any West Ham supporter, the number one derby rivalry has to be Millwall. This is the big east vs south London derby also once known as the Dockers derby.
For those of you not in the know, this rivalry grew out of both clubs’ historic ties to the shipbuilding industry. West Ham have played Millwall almost 100 times. The problem though is that over the last 50 odd years, fixtures between the two clubs have been few and far between.
Yes, we may sing about the rivalry from the stands but it’s a rarity to see the teams battle on the pitch. This fixture does, however, give me one lasting memory and that was our tie against Millwall back in 2009 and I was there.
This game has been dubbed the ‘Upton Park Riot’. I was standing in the Bobby Moore lower when time after time the pitch was invaded not just by so called fans but by dads carrying their kids on to the pitch. But inside the stadium, shenanigans were nothing compared to outside the ground where there seemed to be a battle going off before the game.
On leaving after a 3-1 extra time win for the Hammers, I will never forget walking up Green Street and walking on a bed of shattered glass that was strewn across the whole of Green Street. Or the fact that I was stopped several times by media teams wanting a quick comment. Not on the match itself but on the violence outside.
I had seen violence at football before but this was on another level. I think I was still picking glass from the soles of my trainers for days afterwards. Next on the list has to be Spurs, there are so many happy memories. Who can forget Antonio’s goal that resulted in Spurs’ first defeat in their new stadium or earlier still Lasagnegate where we prevented them from qualifying for the Champions League.
There are so many happy memories in games against our north London rivals but we can’t get away from the fact that we have only beaten them 67 times and lost over a 100 times. Still a win over the Lillywhites is always something to crow over.
So what of those other north London nobodies? The Woolwich Arsenal? Well, unlike the ones in white, we have played Arsenal only 151 times, winning 37 of those contests but two of those victories were ones to savour.
The first was another first in that we were the first team to beat them in their new home. The other was an even better one to savour as we were the last team to beat Arsenal at Highbury in 2006.
I’m not a betting man but I put a bet on that one and actually won money. I will also remember the game for the fact that former Tottenham defender Sol Campbell, after making two mistakes, was not only substituted but also went AWOL at half time leaving the stadium. Back to the present day and Arsenal could yet take the place of an even greater rival particularly if we can help Declan see the error of his ways and he ends up trophyless.
Next up I guess is Chelsea, although I have to be honest, until the Russian money entered the equation I didn’t really see them as a major London rival. We have played just over 130 games against our west London rivals and actually have the upper hand only losing 44 times.
I think in the seventies, the hooliganism element saw us as rivals but Chelsea have a closer affinity with Fulham and QPR rather than us Hammers. This brings me nicely to Fulham. Do we really have a rivalry against them? I’m not so sure.
Yes they took Bobby Moore from us but wasn’t that our choice rather than theirs and what of QPR? Even in the Stan Bowles era were they really a cross town rival, I think not. In recent years we could point to Crystal Palace, Brentford and even Charlton as further London rivals but let’s be honest, none of them spark excitement in the West Ham rivalry field.
And moving even further down the leagues, I could exclude the so called east London derby games against the already mentioned Leyton Orient and also Dagenham and Redbridge but these rarely take place. In fact we haven’t played the Orient since 1987 and I can’t recall us ever playing the Daggers.
Moving further afield would games against AFC Wimbledon, Barnet, Sutton United or even Wealdstone constitute a derby? In geographical terms yes but as we have rarely played those teams, I don’t think we could constitute any as a rivalry.
So where does that leave us in a top five of major West Ham derby games? It may be controversial but for me, it has to be Tottenham in pole position, mainly because any result against them inevitably puts a dent in their aspirations.
Next comes Arsenal then Chelsea and Millwall falling from first place to a distant fourth. Yes we all want to play them but a win against those top three is a bigger scalp to have plus a win against Millwall is expected and we all know what happens when West Ham are expected to beat a lower league team.
Picking the team to round off my top five is a difficult one as no team really stands out but I’ve decided to go for the Orient just because they are just down the road, and the fact that we have a near 70% win record against our nearest and not so dearest.
The question has to be asked though that with the money now in the game, do the local battles really hold real importance? Or are they now replaced with games against teams outside London, Sheffield United, to name but one, which hold just as big an appeal over those old rivalries.
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