Blast from the past

14th November 1964 – The Supremes were number one with ‘Baby Love’ and Johnny Byrne, Martin Peters and Sir Geoff Hurst were amongst the goals in a 3-0 victory for FA Cup holders West Ham United over this weekend’s opponents Arsenal in front of 36,026 at Highbury.

The Hammers would finish 9th in the First Division in 1964/65 and go on to win the European Cup Winners’ Cup, while the Gunners would end the campaign in 13th.

Arsenal: Tony Burns, Don Howe, Frank McLintock, Terry Neill, Billy McCullough, George Armstrong, David Court, Alan Skirton, John Radford, Joe Baker, George Eastham.

West Ham United: Jim Standen, John Bond, Eddie Bovington, Ken Brown, Jack Burkett, Alan Sealey, Ronnie Boyce, Martin Peters, Johnny Sissons, Johnny Byrne, Geoff Hurst.

Club Connections

A large group of players have turned out for West Ham United and Arsenal. Carl Jenkinson is currently on loan from the Gunners but will be unable to play against his parent club on Sunday. Alex Song played for Arsenal before signing for Barcelona, from whom he is on loan at the Hammers. Other players to have represented both clubs include:

Goalkeepers: Richard Wright, Manuel Almunia, Jim Standen.

Defenders: Matthew Upson, Nigel Winterburn, Bernard Joy, Steve Walford, Bob Stevenson.

Midfielders: Liam Brady, Stewart Robson, Yossi Benayoun, Archie Macauley, David Bentley, Les Henley, James Bigden, Luis Boa Morte, Roddy McEachrane, Jimmy Jackson, Henri Lansbury, Fred Kemp, Fredrik Ljungberg.

Strikers: Bobby Gould, Jeremie Aliadiere, Jimmy Marshall, Kaba Diawara, Jimmy Bloomfield, Charlie Satterthwaite, Marouane Chamakh, Lee Chapman, Tom Lee, John Hartson, Ted Drake, John Radford, Ian Wright, Davor Suker, Stan Earle.

Ron Greenwood was also assistant manager at Arsenal before becoming manager of West Ham.

Today’s focus though falls on a star Gunner from the first half of the 20th century who appeared for the Hammers during the Second World War. Eddie Hapgood was born on the 24th September 1908 and juggled amateur football with his milk round in Bristol in the mid-1920s. Kettering handed him an opportunity before Herbert Chapman signed him for Arsenal. Hapgood, a left-back, worked on bulking up his slight physique and became a regular in the Gunners’ first team in early 1929, keeping his place for ten years before the outbreak of war. Having already won one FA Cup, he was appointed captain in the early 1930s and led the team to five league titles and another FA Cup triumph. Hapgood made 440 appearances for Arsenal, scoring two goals. He also won 30 England caps, 21 of them as captain; he was England skipper for the infamous match against Germany in Berlin on 14th May 1938, when Hapgood and the England players were made to give the Nazi salute before the match, under pressure from British diplomats. He was only 30 when war effectively cut short his footballing career.

Hapgood served in the Royal Air Force and made two war-time guest appearances for West Ham United in June 1940, a 2-1 home defeat to Millwall and a 0-0 draw at Charlton. In 1945, he wrote one of the first footballing autobiographies, ‘Football Ambassador’. After the war he moved into management, enjoying stints in charge of Blackburn, Watford and Bath City. After that he left football completely. Falling on hard times and having never been given a testimonial match, he wrote back to his old club Arsenal asking for financial assistance; the club sent him £30. He spent his later years running YMCA hostels in Harwell, Berkshire and Weymouth, Dorset. Eddie Hapgood died in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, on Good Friday 1973 at the age of 64.

Referee

Saturday’s referee will be Chris Foy; the Liverpool-based official has been taking charge of Premier League fixtures since 2001. Since West Ham United achieved promotion back to the top flight in 2012 Foy has refereed seven of our league matches, officiating in one win, three draws and three defeats for the Hammers. He has been the man in the middle for the Irons on three occasions already this season: against Tottenham in the 1-0 loss at Upton Park, the 2-2 draw at Stoke and the 3-1 home win over Swansea.

Possible line-ups

Arsenal will be without the injured Gabriel, Mathieu Debuchy, Jack Wilshere and Mikel Arteta, while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Tomas Rosicky, and Mathieu Flamini are doubts. There is the possibility that Arsene Wenger could rest players ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League do-or-die tie in Monaco – this has to be considered unlikely though, given the cut-throat nature of the battle for top four places in this season’s Premier League.

For West Ham United, Winston Reid, Andy Carroll and Carlton Cole are all out, while Enner Valencia is a major doubt. Unconfirmed reports on twitter (which I belatedly joined this week) also suggest James Tomkins has suffered a serious shoulder injury – at the time of writing, this speculation was unsubstantiated but, if proved true, could see Cheikhou Kouyate moved to centre-back. Sam Allardyce must decide whether to restore Alex Song to the starting XI against his former club. Kevin Nolan was superb against Chelsea and will expect to keep his place, particularly if Kouyate is forced into the back four. Carl Jenkinson is unavailable against his parent club.

Possible Arsenal XI: Ospina; Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal; Coquelin, Ramsey; Cazorla, Ozil, Sanchez; Welbeck.

Possible West Ham United XI: Adrian; O’Brien, Collins, Tomkins, Cresswell; Song, Kouyate, Noble; Downing; Nene, Sakho.

Enjoy the game – Come On You Irons!