Being a West Ham supporter can be challenging and it is so easy to look at the low moments, like the times when we were relegated, or the dark days of Pellegrini. Even recently when we were beaten repeatedly by Liverpool and Arsenal. But there has to be a reason why we stick with them through the years.
There has to be happier times and as a Hammers supporter for over half a century, I have seen so many ups and downs it would make a yo-yo look immovable. First off I don’t get those fans who say they have supported West Ham all their lives.
I can’t imagine a babe in arms or toddlers shouting: ‘Come on you Irons’ or fretting over the football results. I have a feeling they had a greater interest in where their next meal was coming from than what was occurring in east London.
For me, my football awakening occurred during the 1970 FA Cup Final and the replay that occurred after the first game had been a draw. That game was Chelsea vs Leeds but when deciding what team I would choose to support, I had to be different.
Where there was a glut of Leeds, Manchester United and Liverpool fans in my rural part of Wales, I chose a team that had three World Cup winners, yes at the tender age of 10, I chose West Ham. There have been times when I wish I could wind the clock back and have picked another team but once a Hammer, always a Hammer.
There have been some great highlights over the years, so like Doc Brown and his Delorean, let’s go back to the future. The problem with being a long distance Hammer was that it was not exactly easy to get to games.
It took me until I attended University to get to my first West Ham game and it wasn’t even in London. Living in Salford, I managed to get tickets for our Milk Cup game at Anfield. The date was the 18th of January 1983.
I couldn’t get an away ticket so I ended up standing in the Kop, which was a fantastic experience but also so far away from the West Ham supporters. A 2-1 defeat was the result after which we had the challenge of trying to get back to Manchester. We missed our first train, met Bruce Grobbelaar, the Liverpool keeper at Lime Street Station, and if it couldn’t get any worse, our train hit a cow between Manchester and Liverpool and we arrived back extremely late.
The game was a one off as soon after university, work took hold and other than several away games – mainly Villa Park – I was consigned to watching the hammers on TV. My first home game was yet another cup match, this time the non-league team Emley visitors in the third round of the FA Cup.
Although we narrowly won that game, I had the bug and a year later I’ll be getting a season ticket and from then on, I would try to get to as many games as I could and so began my journey as a fully fledged season ticket holder living in rural Wales. There have been many highlights of being a West Ham supporter and I could list numerous single games that really stand out as some of the most enjoyable moments I’ve had at football but they’ve been some low moments too.
I’ve decided to look at those moments when we had a season or two to remember. This is, of course, my opinion and no doubt others would disagree but I have chosen periods of time when I’ve had the most enjoyment as a West Ham fan. Before starting that though here comes the disclaimer for those expecting me to list our recent European Conference League cup run or our time in Europe as one of those top three, I’ve had to exclude those moments.
There is a reason I didn’t enjoy them. I enjoyed some of the results but disliked some of the football we played and also the lack, quite often, of camaraderie in the stands. So my three moments in time relate back to the glory days or not so glory days of our time and my time at the Boleyn Ground.
Two of those moments were when we were playing Championship football so do not even relate to the Premier League. So in descending order, I will list in third place a Premier League season that I will never forget – our last season at the Boleyn Ground which culminated in that magical evening when we overcame all odds to beat Manchester United in the very final game.
It was a difficult season for some, me included, as I, like many, were against the move to the London Stadium. It was the first season with Slaven Bilic in charge. We had qualified for the Europa League but even before the season began, we were out of that competition.
There was some inspiring transfer business conducted, but we were unaware at the start of that season just how inspirational some of that business would be. First in was a certain French international midfielder who joined from Marseille. Dimitri Payet joined on a five year deal and I wish we had seen him for the length of that contract.
Then a few weeks later came Angelo Ogbonna and then if it could not get any better, and when incidentally I was sunning myself in Italy, I heard that we had signed Manuel Lanzini, on a permanent contract.
Our transfer dealings that season makes our recent dealings pale into insignificance as also joining the Hammers were Darren Randolph, Pedro Obiang, Martin Samuelson, Alex Song, Victor Moses, Nikica Jelavic and someone called Michail Antonio, what ever happened to him?
The season began with a bang and a 2-0 win at the Emirates. This was soon followed by our first victory at Anfield since 1963. I honestly felt that I would never see us win at Anfield and that day I couldn’t believe what I was seeing as we dominated for large parts of the game and never looked in trouble.
We also went on to beat Man City and the then league champions Chelsea. There were some low moments with injuries to Lanzini and Payet but there was a momentum to the club and attending every home game that season, and most of those away too, I had a feeling that we could win every game we played.
By April we had achieved the most points we ever had in the Premier League, had beaten Liverpool home and away and had taken four points off of Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City. All that was left to achieve was to win our final game at the Boleyn and on that memorable night we did just that, giving the Old Lady a fitting farewell with Winston Reid scoring the winning goal that will go down in West Ham folklore.
We ended the season in seventh place with 62 points and qualifying for Europe. I left the Boleyn that night sad but fulfilled in what was a magical season. And so to the moment in time that sits in second place, and it relates back to the Championship and a controversial season with Sam Allardyce in charge.
We had been relegated the season before, a season to forget under Avram Grant. Allardyce had been brought in for one reason, and one reason only, that was to take us back to the promised land. All looked good until March but in that month, we failed to win a single game and automatic promotion slipped away.
I have to say though that the writing was on the wall earlier when I decided on putting on hold a romantic Valentine’s night with my wife and chose to attend the Boleyn to see our game against Southampton. During that game Matt Taylor was controversially sent off in the 18th minute and we ended up drawing that game.
Southampton ended up pipping us to second place and that loss of all three points in our home tie against them made all the difference. What made this season one that stands out as my second favourite of all time?
Well yes, we reached the play-off final beating Blackpool 2-1 at Wembley, a fabulous day out but it was the days out throughout the season that made it for me and particularly away from home. West Ham’s 13 away wins constituted a club record for any league season. We went to every away game that year expecting to win and it was almost a shock when we didn’t.
We also recorded the fewest defeats, eight, of any team in the Championship that season and had the second best goal difference. The failure to get automatic promotion was almost a Godsend as it gave us that magical day out at Wembley to put the icing on a fabulous season.
And so what is my number one? Well this was a memorable period of time as a West Ham supporter. This was more than just one season and was to span three years. It had some heartbreak but also the most enjoyment I’ve had as a West Ham supporter.
It’s a period that culminated each season in three trips to three finals, only one we won, but what a time it was to be a Hammer. The period that makes it my number one time as a Hammer was from 2003 to 2006, the Pardew years, I like to call it.
We were full of hope in his first season in charge. It started though a little odd. I was in Ireland at the time and trying to follow our first league game on the radio.
It seemed that we had actually picked up a player, Neil Mellor, at the services on our way up to that first game versus Preston North End. Pardew though didn’t arrive until October. It was a season of mixed results but we performed well enough to finish fourth, a one-all draw at Wigan securing that position at a game where there seemed to be more West Ham fans in attendance than Wigan.
The significance of the play-off semi final against Ipswich still rings out at the London Stadium today where we still sing about Christian Dailly’s 71st minute winner that took us to the play off final at Cardiff with Wembley being out of action due to the rebuild.
I fully expected us to beat Palace who had just sneaked into the play offs but maybe we underestimated them and ended up losing 1-0. And so we entered a second year in the Championship, one I thought we would walk, how little did I know.
We basically huffed and puffed all season and if it wasn’t for a final 10 games, in which we only lost once, we would have failed to make the playoffs, let alone promotion. Once again we faced Ipswich in the semi finals and after a draw at the Boleyn, I travelled all the way to Ipswich almost resigned to defeat.
How wrong was I? Bobby Zamora was on fire that day and a 2-0 win took us for the second year running to Cardiff. This time we got it right and it was Zamora who scored the only goal of the game.
The eight minutes of added time at the end of the game still ranks as the longest eight minutes of my life, but we won so that’s all that matters and we were back in the Premier League. And so to that final year, the 2005/2006 season. Some would say this was a mediocre season, after all we ended up ninth.
But it’s the season where we became the last team to win at Highbury and was also the season of Lasagnegate, a game where we prevented Spurs from reaching the Champions League. We still sing about it today.
It was, though, in the FA Cup that we excelled. Our route to the final wasn’t easy, having to overcome Norwich, Blackburn, Bolton, Manchester City and finally Middlesbrough to make it a third visit to Cardiff in three years and a tie with Liverpool.
Liverpool were the reigning European Champions and had finished third in the league. In spite of all the odds, we took a 2-0 lead and despite Liverpool coming back into the game, we were winning 3-2 with just minutes to go. We looked certain for victory.
Then came the Gerrard wonder goal, made all the easier by Scaloni not booting the ball upfield. We ended up losing on penalties but it will go down as one of the greatest finals of all time.
Sadly after that Pardew’s tenure as manager fell apart. The signing of the Argentinian two followed by personal accusations and then on-field performances made Pardew’s time at West Ham come to an end. But let’s not forget we achieved three finals in three years and that’s why it’s my most memorable time ever of being a West Ham supporter.
So there you have it, those are the three periods of time in which I have been my happiest as a West Ham supporter. Gone now are the days when I wouldn’t miss a single game, where I would move heaven and Earth just to get to a game.
But since the move to the London Stadium, West Ham have not been the same. Gone are the days of West Ham losing 6-0 away from home at Reading on New Year’s Day and every away supporter staying to do the conga in the stands.
Football has changed and for me, not for the better. Yes I’ve left out the recent European campaign, which I have to admit I really enjoyed, but football was purer years ago. Maybe it’s an age thing but those three periods will stand out as my most memorable of all time, controversial I know but hey we all can’t agree can we?
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