1973-74 West Ham away

Saturday 8th December 1973, Upton Park, London, SEASON 1973-1974, DIVISION ONE

West Ham United 2 CITY 1 (Brooking, Doyle o.g.) (Lee) Att. 20,790

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On a day of very few goals in the first division, City fell to a second consecutive away league defeat under new manager Ron Saunders. With Tottenham beating Stoke City at White Hart Lane, the defeat meant that City dropped another place to 16th in the table, whilst West Ham, starting the day in the relegation zone, moved level on points with Norwich City, who had lost narrowly at Burnley. This season would see three go down for the first time, so more clubs would be left fighting for survival at the foot of the table.

Saunders chose the following starting eleven: MacRae; Pardoe, Donachie, Doyle, Booth; Towers, Summerbee, Bell; Lee Leman, Marsh. Unused sub: Frank Carrodus

YOUTH AND EXPERIENCE

Tony Towers evades a flying lunge from Billy Bonds with Glyn Pardoe looking on.

West Ham lined up with a combination of reliable experience in Moore, Brooking and Clyde Best, plus the energetic youth of the likes of Billy Bonds, Johnny Ayris (pictured) and the full back partnership of Keith Coleman and Frank Lampard.

In its editorial the match day programme suggested that energy crisis time changes could be having a positive effect. In “Home for Tea, Crumpets and Winkles?” the writer noted that West ham’s crowds had actually gone up last time they had been forced to participate in early kick-offs. “However, there are many of us here who will recall that floodlights were not installed at Upton Park until 1953; and in turn reflect that in 1933 we had 40,000 here for a 2.45 kick-off in an FA Cup tie whilst we were in division two.” The writer continues, “However, following England’s elimination from the World Cup, an extension of the league need not present insuperable problems of fixture rearrangement…”. Clearly, West Ham were trying to look on the bright side of things in all respects.

It was a game rich in skill and heavy in chances, although all three goals could readily be put down to individual errors. West Ham, having a desperate season which would end perilously close to relegation, hereby notched their first home league win of the campaign, whilst City rued in particular a missed chance by Rodney Marsh when it had seemed odds on he would score. Instead young Hammers’ ‘keeper Mervyn Day, having his best game of the season so far, plunged onto the weakly hit shot and kept his side in the hunt.

Francis Lee had put City ahead with the strangest of goals in the first half. Mike Summerbee’s angled corner was swept into the penalty area, where the West ham defence went AWOL en masse, leaving Lee to jump and connect without any defender being within ten yards of him. The video footage from the match, televised by London Weekend Television, shows a scene that beggars belief.

This goal was Lee’s 200th in professional football, ironically his first had also been a header, for Bolton put past City’s Bert Trautmann. 200 in 425 games gave the striker a near-one-in-two scoring record and put him close to Denis Law, himself one of the elite eight still playing at this time who had passed 200 career goals. the others were: Ron Davies (Southampton) 265; Ken Wagstaffe (Hull) 256; Kevin Hector (Derby), Tony Hately (Oldham), Derek Dougan (Wolves) and Frank Large (Chesterfield). With Law and Lee, City were the only club with double representation to this special group.

A gap of almost equal dimensions opened up in the City defence to allow Brooking to equalise on half time, before Mike Doyle put through his own goal in the second half to complete West Ham’s comeback. Ron Saunders’ reign had thus opened with two 1-2 away league defeats and a home win in the League Cup versus York City.