West Ham United's 100 Greatest Moments: Part Five (60-51)

Back in 2004, readers of KUMB.com voted for their greatest West Ham moments.

With several years having passed since - during which we've witnessed a number of memorable occasions, matches and goals - we decided to revisit the list - for a second time (the first being in 2011) - in order to include some more recent events.

Due to the vast size, we'll be breaking our countdown down into ten parts; here follows part five - that's entries 60 to 51. Please note the number in brackets represents the entry's previous position in our list.







West Ham have been blessed with a series of top class goalkeepers over the years but rarely have any came close to matching Robert Green's awe-inspiring performance at the Emirates, as the 2006/07 season reached its climax.

Alan Curbishley's West Ham travelled to Arsenal deep in the mire with seven games of the season left to play; defeat would almost certainly mean curtains for The Irons' Premiership future. Yet the future England 'keeper denied Arsenal time and time again, having set out his stall with three outstanding saves inside the opening ten minutes.
help of his woodwork once or twice.

Curbishley had withdrawn Carlos Tevez into a midfield role on the day, leaving Bobby Zamora alone up front. And his plan paid off when Zamora scored on the verge of half-time with an audacious lob. It was to be the only goal of the game and West Ham lived to fight another day.




April 2003: West Ham had been rocked by the news that manager Glenn Roeder was in a critical condition having collapsed after the narrow 1-0 home win against Middlesbrough that kept United's faint hopes of avoiding relegation alive. It later transpired that the unfortunate Roeder had a brain tumour, which could've killed him.

And so it was that the club needed someone who could galvanise the players and the fans for the final three games of the season - at which point much-maligned Chairman Terry Brown made one of the smartest decisions of his 14 year tenure. Club legend Trevor Brooking, working at the time in an advisory role for West Ham was installed as temporary manager to the delight of supporters.

A tough trip to Manchester City was the first test for Brooking and his new charges, but carried along on a wave of newly-found hope and optimism his team snatched a vital three points thanks to Freddie Kanoute's 81st minute winner - a goal scored directly in front of the delirious travelling West Ham fans. The Great Escape (Part One) was on.

Next up came Chelsea - and the return of Paolo Di Canio, who had been out of the frame for nearly two months having fallen out with Roeder. Introduced as a substitute to rapturous applause with 25 minutes to play, the Italian grabbed the winning goal which kept Hammers hopes alive. Bedlam ensued and Paolo cried - a lot.

Yet not even Brooking's timely intervention could ultimately save West Ham from the dreaded drop and a 2-2 at Birmingham on the final day of the season, combined with Bolton's defeat of Middlesbrough was the final nail in the coffin as the Hammers were relegated on 42 points, a Premier League record that stands to this day.

Brooking returned briefly at the beginning of the 2003/04 season before Alan Pardew was announced as Roeder's full-time replacement after Sir Trevor, probably wisely, decided to call time on his brief yet entertaining stay in the managerial hotseat.




The 1922/23 season was an historic one for West Ham United, who had risen from the ashes of Thames Iron Works FC 23 years earlier. Having started life in the Southern League and having subsequently spent the Great War years playing in the London Combination, United, now firmly established at their new ground in Green Street were given a place in the first post-war Football League 2nd Division (for season 1919/20).

After finished 7th, 5th and 4th respectively in the intervening years, Syd King's side went into the final month of the 1922/23 season with the club's very first FA Cup Final to look forward to and in pole position for the 2nd Division Championship. Sadly the double was prised from United's clutches when 1st Division Bolton proved too strong for King's side in the first and most famous Wembley FA Cup Final of them all on 28th April, which left the Irons just the league to go for.

With Leicester, West Ham and Notts County neck and neck for the title and two games left to play, the Hammers - who prior to defeat in the Cup Final had enjoyed a 23-match unbeaten run - led the table on goal difference. A 2-0 win at Sheffield Wednesday in the penultimate round of fixtures kept West Ham top of t
Sadly it was lost when King's side were beaten 1-0 at home by Notts County, but promotion was a remains the only one in which West Ham have finished runners-up in two competitions.




As the 1970s wore on, West Ham began to flirt with relegation more and more often despite continuing to perform above and beyond the call of duty in cup competitions at both domestic and European level. When the 1976/77 season entered its final weekend John Lyall's side were not so much flirting with the dreaded drop but involved in a fully-fledged affair with it, being as they were one of seven teams who could fall through the trap door.

West Ham's goal difference of -21 compared to Stoke City's -22 just kept The Irons out of the relegation zone - and with FA Cup finalists Manchester United to face at the Boleyn Ground, the Irons' prospects of survival looked slim. However their chances were boosted by the absence of any Man Utd supporters, who were on a terrace ban.

Despite being played on a Monday night just five days before the Cup Final in which the Reds were to play Liverpool, there we no signs of Tommy Docherty's side taking it easy and Upton Park was stunned into silence inside 30 seconds when Gordon Hill put the visitors ahead - and West Ham into the bottom three (or at least they would have, had live league tables existed in 1976).

But the Hammers refused to lay down and die - and Frank Lampard restored parity on the half hour mark with a 30-yard belter before Geoff Pike made it 2-1 with 53 played. A brace from 'Pop' Robson sandwiched Stuart Pearson's 67th minute effort for the visitors and West Ham were safe - for another season, at least.

As it was Sunderland, who began the final day of the season in 16th place, four places above the drop zone - were relegated, along with Stoke and Tottenham.




Having moved to West Ham from Charlton in 1951, Malcolm Allison's promising playing career was cut short by a bout of tuberculosis in 1957 which resulted in the defender spending a year in hospital and eventually losing a lung. Despite the obvious restrictions, Allison bravely attempted a comeback, but was forced to call it a day after it became clear he'd never be able to reach the necessary fitness levels for professional football.

A keen tactician even as a player - his contempt for Charlton's training methods are cited as one of the reasons for his sale to West Ham - Allison was appointed first team coach by then-Hammers boss Ted Fenton and wasted no time in introducing his footballing philosophy, which he had developed from watching the great Hungarian sides of the early 1950s (whose revolutionary style he described as being "from another planet"). Allison famously held court at Cassettari's Cafe on the Barking Road during the 1950s and early '60s to teach his theories which were visualised with the aid of the cafe's salt and pepper pots.

The sessions, which were to continue at Cassettari's until well into the 1960s and long after Allison had left to take up his first managerial role with Bath City were regularly attended by a number of West Ham's first team and up-and-coming stars - including a young Bobby Moore. Allison's legacy to West Ham would be the FA Cup and Cup Winners' Cup-winning sides of the mid-'60s, which he had helped mould.

Following a glittering managerial career at clubs such as Manchester City and Crystal Palace, Big Mal passed away at the age of 83 in 2010.




It had been 36 years since West Ham's youth team had stunned Liverpool by coming back from 5-2 down to win a two-legged Youth Cup Final in the club's first Cup success at that level.

A 3-0 advantage from the first leg at Highfield Road meant this particular task was never going to prove quite as difficult - although the manner in which Tony Carr's young charges set about demolishing the Sky Blues in the second leg at a packed Boleyn Ground was the stuff of legend.

Bertie Brayley opened the scoring with a deft flick over future England 'keeper Chris Kirkland after just three minutes before Adam Newton added a second on 28. Five minutes later Richard Garcia was felled by Davenport and the resulting penalty was slammed home by Garcia. With the score now 6-0 on aggregate, the Cup was in the bag and it was simply a question of how many the Hammers were going to score.

A fourth goal of the evening arrived when Brayley's persistence paid off and then a fifth from the outstanding Michael Carrick, with quarter-of-an-hour remaining. The sixth and final goal arrived moments later to give the young Hammers a 6-0 win on the night and a crushing 9-0 aggregate win, watched by some 25,000 fans an attendance figure which exceeded all expectations.




Less than 12 months after grabbing the first four-goal haul of his career in a Division Two match at Grimsby, David 'Psycho' Cross repeated his feat against a shell-shocked Tottenham at White Hart Lane - much to the shock of the reigning FA Cup holders and their two World Cup winning Argentineans Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa.

In what was West Ham's first away game in the top flight for more than three years, the former Norwich and Coventry striker started the rout from close range after just ten minutes, the only goal of the first half. His second arrived five minutes after the break and the hat-trick was completed with a volley that Cross chose as his pick of the bunch - even if TV replays confirmed it came off his shin!

His fourth and final goal - a tap-in following a goalmouth scramble in the final minute of normal time that left Ray Clemence flapping at thin air - was the icing on the cake for West Ham and their jubilant travelling fans.




In the wake of the Taylor Report, commissioned following the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy, all first and second division clubs were obliged to introduce all-seater stadia. In what was the very last Barclays Division 1 campaign before the Premiership began in 1992/93, West Ham's Board decided in their infinite wisdom to offset the cost of redevelopment by introducing a Bond Scheme, in which supporters could only purchase a season ticket if they had previously bought a bond (for around £500).

This, combined with a national recession and the team's woeful form - a sequence that eventually saw the Hammers finish bottom of the league - contributed to an air of anarchy on the terraces. From that growing discontent HISA - the Hammers Independent Supporters Association - emerged to become the voice of the anti-Bond Scheme movement.

HISA's high-profile campaign - one that was backed privately by Julian Dicks - reached its zenith on 29th February 1992 when one disgusted fan picked up a corner flag before ceremoniously planting it in the centre circle before sitting down. A fortnight later a second protest - this time in tandem with Arsenal, who were also planning to introduce their own Bond Scheme - resulted in hundreds of balloons being released above Upton Park.

HISA eventually won the day with West Ham's board caving in after less than 1,000 Bonds were sold; the protests remains the last occasion on which the solidarity of the supporters effected substantial influence at Boadroom level.




With just ten minutes of the game remaining West Ham were in serious trouble at home to Manchester United in this Sunday afternoon, 1996/97 FA Carling Premiership clash.

Goals from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and David Beckham had granted the Champions League winners-in-waiting a commanding lead, before Florin Raducioiu gave the Irons a glimmer of hope with his first league goal for the club (he only scored one more) with 78 minutes played.

That strike was the catalyst for a desperate push by West Ham for an equaliser - and less than two minutes later, referee Jones was left with no option but to point to the spot following Schmeichel's near-assault on Michael Hughes, who'd beaten the Danish 'keeper to a through ball.

Julian Dicks, West Ham's penalty king strode up to the spot, gave Schmeichel the eye then took several steps back before beginning his run up. His connection with the ball was pure and crisp - and the penalty possibly struck harder, more venomously, than any other at the BG. Danish international Schmeichel barely saw it, the net almost burst - and Dicksy had salvaged a point as Man Utd came unstuck in east London. Again.




It was the gale to end all gales - and quite ridiculous conditions for a Premiership football match to be played in. But played it was and the two out-of-form London rivals served up a seven-goal thriller for those brave enough to face the wrath of Mother Nature.

West Ham - looking dead certs for relegation at the time - gave home debuts to new arrivals John Hartson and Paul Kitson, both of whom appeared on the score sheet along with the inspirational Julian Dicks. However it was Teddy Sheringham who opened the scoring after eight minutes for Spurs before goals from Dicks and Kitson put the troubled Hammers ahead.

Tottenham were behind for just a few minutes before Darren Anderton made it 2-2 on the half hour mark, yet there was still time for a fifth goal ahead of the half time whistle - John Hartson climbing highest to nod home a Dicks free kick.

David Howells - bravely playing less than 24 hours after the death of his father - brought the visitors level again eight minutes into the second half, which is how it stayed until the 72nd minute, when John Hartson was felled in the area and captain Dicks stepped up to take the penalty.

Spurs 'keeper Ian Walker wisely moved away from the trajectory of Dicks' spot kick which would quite possibly have taken his head off had he remained where he was originally stationed. And so it was that West Ham won the game 4-3, granting Irons fans bragging rights over their closest rivals - while Harry Redknapp's boys had secured a result that eventually went some considerable way to helping West Ham avoid relegation.


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