After a narrow failure to gain promotion back to the top flight at the first attempt in May, Lyall set about identifying the flaws that cost the Hammers last time around. As he had shown in March when he paid a world record fee for goalkeeper Phil Parkes, he was not afraid to spend money to achieve that aim.
Lyall paid a then world-record fee for a teenager, spending £430,000 for the services of Ray Stewart from Dundee United, and a further £220,000 for the slightly older but vastly experienced striker Stuart Pearson from Manchester United.
Exciting winger and Chingford’s finest Jimmy Neighbour also arrived from Norwich City for £150,000. So that was a total outlay of £800,000 on three players which was an absolute fortune in 1979.
If you consider that the concept of the £1m player had only just come about, and West Ham were a second division side, it tells you everything you need to know about how level the playing field was. Despite that outlay the season began badly with 1-0 defeats away at Wrexham and at home to Chelsea.
The first points came in a 1-0 home win over Oldham in which Patsy Holland answered his growing band of critics with the winner. Pearson registered his first West Ham goal in a 3-1 win over Barnsley in the League Cup, but another defeat, the third in the opening four League matches came at Watford raising serious question marks over the Hammers promotion credentials.
That said, neither Stewart or Neighbour had featured up to this point, Stewart debuted at Barnsley in the second leg of the League Cup which saw safe passage, and both made their home debuts in front of the Match of the Day cameras in a 2-0 win over Sunderland. That should have been lift-off, but another run of inconsistent results followed. It took three games to get past Southend in the next round of the League Cup, Billy Lansdowne Jnr scoring a hat-trick in the second replay which ended 5-1.
Sunderland were beaten, again after a replay in round four before eventually crashing out to Nottingham Forest 3-0 in a fifth-round replay at The City Ground. League form was frustratingly inconsistent, by the time the Hammers exited the League Cup on 12 December 1979, they had slipped to ninth in the table and appeared to have little chance of making the top three position needed for promotion.
They had, however, shown their cup credentials and took on a very good West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns in the FA Cup third round. This was a game remembered for the heroics of Phil Parkes, who virtually single-handedly earned a replay in a 0-0 draw.
In the replay the Hammers won 2-1 with goals from Geoff Pike, playing as a makeshift striker, and the ever-reliable Trevor Brooking. This coincided with an upturn in league form and impressive wins over QPR, Orient, Preston Burnley and Leicester.
Orient were also beaten 3-2 in the fourth round of the FA Cup, two goals from Ray Stewart and an own goal seeing the Hammers through. In round five the Hammers took on Swansea City at Upton Park and won 2-0 with late goals from young Paul Allen who had made his debut earlier in the campaign.
In the Quarter-finals West Ham faced Aston Villa at Upton Park. A late penalty after a handball by Ken McNaught saw the ice-cool Stewart convert the spot kick and send West Ham through to the semi-final against Everton at Villa Park. Reaching the last four coincided with a significant downturn in league form which garnered just three wins from the last 13 games, clearly Lyall was prioritising the cup run drawing much criticism from the press, and indeed from some fans who felt that promotion should be the priority.
But not many were complaining as Billy Bonds led the team out at Villa Park on a bright April afternoon to go toe-to-toe with Everton for a place in the FA Cup final. A bad-tempered game ended 1-1 with Everton’s Brian Kidd sent off and Stuart Pearson grabbing an equaliser.
So, the FA Cup roadshow moved on to Elland Road for the replay, where Alan Devonshire skipped through the Everton defence to give West Ham the lead, Bob Latchford equalised, and it looked like a second replay would be required before Frank Lampard popped up with a diving header right at the end to put Lyall’s second division side in the final.
Whilst Lyall had received criticism for his prioritisation of the cup over the league from some quarters, most agree that tactically, the final against Arsenal was his finest hour. Normally West Ham played a 4-4-2 with Cross and Pearson as the front two. But for the final he made the late change to a 4-4-1-1 with Pearson playing as a lone striker and Cross in a more withdrawn role, popularly known now as ‘in the hole’.
This completely surprised Arsenal’s centre-backs O’Leary and Young who did not know whether to stay put and allow Cross the freedom of the space between midfield and attack or mark him and leave gaps at the back for Pearson to exploit. The tactic worked perfectly especially as West Ham took the lead on 13 minutes through Brooking and then had something to defend.
Whilst Arsenal looked towards a draining four-match semi-final against Liverpool as a possible excuse and an upcoming Cup-Winners’ Cup final, Lyall’s tactical acumen ultimately won the game. The FA Cup for a second division team for the last time to date, a place in the Cup Winners’ Cup competition for 1980-81 and every prospect, with one final tweak, of a team capable of gaining promotion.
My YouTube series “The John Lyall Years” follows the fortunes of the club during John Lyall’s tenure, merging match footage with interviews, newspaper cuttings, news items, music, TV, and cinema from the time. It is a must for anyone who remembers those heady days, or those who are curious to learn. 1979-80 is covered in Episodes 22-26 – see @westhamhistory
Be the first to comment