The League Cup run of 1971/2 began as it always does on a late summer evening when seasons hopes are high and anything is possible. The League Cup – now the Carling Cup – was a secondary competition virtually invented to provide Championship sides (Premier League) with, initially, another shot at gaining some silverware, later via a Wembley appearance and then, as the competition gained popularity, another chance at competing in Europe as the winners qualified for a European berth.
As things turned out though, the competition often threw up odd results, most significantly when Swindon beat Arsenal in the final in 1969. Not that West Ham were expected to end up us ignominious failures that season though, the Daily Express having already tipped the Hammers for the cup before a ball was even kicked. In fact, West Ham in 1971/2 were an interesting side; led again by Ron Greenwood, two of the World Cup winners were still there, the mighty Moore with his powers undiminished and Geoff Hurst still valuable for 20+ goals a season. Elsewhere, England prospects Frank Lampard, John McDowell, the elegant Brooking and hoped-for Moore clone Tommy Taylor were regulars. Billy Bonds was a wilder man in those days and he wasn’t thought to be England material but he was a great club player, while a young ginger-haired whippet called Harry Redknapp could be both brilliant or not depending on his mood. High hopes were still held for the big Bermudan striker Clyde Best and wearing the No: 11 shirt was one of the greatest players never to represent his country; Bryan ‘Pop’ Robson.
The Second Round draw paired the Hammers at home against second division Cardiff City. It should have been easy even if the visitors were led by an impressive Welshman called John Toshack but, as ever, the Hammers stumbled against lower opposition and, although Bonds put the home side ahead, Cardiff equalised through Alan Foggon and a replay at Ninian Park was required.
In the interim though, the 3rd Round cup draw had thrown up an interesting prospect; a home game against Don Revie’s loathed and reviled but nonetheless brilliant, Leeds United. In their day a combination of Manchester United and Chelsea now, it’s debatable who got most out of the prospects of the cup draw but, in a replay they were expected to lose, it was West Ham who came through in extra time against Cardiff after Hurst scored two vital goals in a 2-1 win.
I was very young, but the night of the Leeds United game is very poignant for me (No, I’m not going to tell you why!) and might have stayed in my memory for that reason alone but, just as now, when you think you have West Ham understood they surprise you, and the team provided some other, happier memories for the young Blagg that night. The eventual score was 0-0 but I don’t know how. The Hammers mercilessly battered Leeds and only excellent and brutal defending – particularly by Jack Charlton - allowed the Yorkshire side to escape with a draw. Under floodlights, with the 35,000 plus crowd baying and swaying, it was one of the best goalless games I have seen even to this day. Even so, a draw was a gutting result. Nobody won at Elland Road.
In the days before all games were covered by TV even if only for the goals, the replay in Leeds remains a mystery. Even the radio didn’t feel the need to report on every ball kicked in every part of the country but it didn’t take a genius to learn that something special happened in Yorkshire that night when the result filtered through: Leeds United 0 West Ham 1 after extra time with Clyde Best scoring. The fans delirium was soon tempered by the thought of the next opponents though; the team who were to go on to win the league that season were the Hammer’s next opponents, Bill Shankly’s Liverpool.
An incredible 40,870 people piled into Upton Park to see this fourth round game. If the place was heaving for the Leeds visit then the bar was, if anything, raised even higher for the visit of Liverpool. The old Upton Park under floodlights was always a magical venue but that night the crowd were enthralled by a game described by Desmond Hackett in the ‘Daily Express’ as ‘one of the greatest games I have seen for years’. The Hammers dominated the first half but went behind to a Bobby Graham goal and, with Geoff Hurst limping, it looked as if the cup run was to end, but Hurst’s injury actually contributed to the Hammer’s equaliser as the England man coming back painfully slowly from an attack was just in the right spot when Tommy Smith back-headed the ball to him following a Clyde Best shot.
Interesting to note that Hackett’s match report of the night mentions West Ham’s ‘notorious ill-luck’ – you thought it was a new thing when you look at Dean Ashton? – and, with Hurst being replaced at half-time, the Hammers chances of getting through to the next round looked even slimmer as Liverpool looked for the replay back at Anfield. But then something magical happened that I can see as clearly now as I could that night because it was one of the best goals I have ever seen. Hammer’s keeper Bobby Ferguson threw the ball out to McDowell who slipped it through to Harry Redknapp. ‘Arry set off on a mazy run down the west side wing evading tackle after tackle for a full 30 yards until the by-line loomed and the ginger one looked as if he was sure to end in a heap in front of the photographers fronting the South Bank. But, it didn’t happen. Instead, Redknapp crossed from the tightest of angles, the ball flew over an outstretched Clemence in the Liverpool goal and was met at the far post by Pop Robson, rising like a salmon to power in. It was glorious. Upton Park erupted; the Hammers celebrated and the dreaded replay on Merseyside was averted as they ran out 2-1 winners. The papers the following day summed it up: ‘West Ham – Pride of London’. When fans berate our ex-boss for his association with Spurs or, more likely, his annoying habit of remaining unbeaten against us, it’s not the saggy chops that I see when I hear his name. Instead I see a skinny, ginger haired kid in shiny boots flying towards the South Bank at full speed…
It was the 5th round now - the quarter finals - and once again the draw had given West Ham a home tie but equally it was against opponents Greenwood would not have chosen given the opportunity. This time the team due to visit Upton Park were already riding high at the top of the first division, a side already being tipped to become perhaps the ‘new Leeds’, a side bristling with inventive football who’d already won at Upton Park in the league, the Hammer’s next opponents were….. Sheffield United?
In 1972, Sheffield was celebrating their second season back in the big league. By November they were top of the division and, with players like the much-abused Trevor Hockey – a man who made weird-beard Derek Hales look like he suffered from alopecia - Alan Woodward and a young Tony Currie, the Blades were a team expected to go far. The Saturday before the cup game, Sheffield came to the Boleyn and won 2-1 and went into the quarter final expecting to complete a double. They didn’t. West Ham blew them away that night in a 5-0 thrashing that could have run into double figures as the men in claret and blue played scintillating football that had the home crowd – another 36,000 plus – roaring and singing as Sheffield chased shadows. The defeat was so epic that the Blades were never the same after, slipping down the league to finish 10th. At Upton Park though, the celebrations went long into the night as Hammers fans looked forward to a semi-final – the first since the glory days of the mid-sixties – against perennial bridesmaid side Stoke City. The semi-final meant a two-legged affair so at least one match was guaranteed under the Upton Park floodlights.
The saga was about to begin.
Born at an early age a mere defenders' spit from the Boleyn ground, Billy Blagg has seen every West Ham game from 1898 onwards. Blagg was mentioned by Kenneth Wolstenholme in 1966 as one of the people on the pitch during the famous Hammers win over West Germany that lifted the World Cup and he returned to the pitch again for the 1975 FA Cup Final but stayed on the terrace for 1980 FA Cup victory. Blagg, 26, now lives with his eighth wife and innumerable children in a small semi-detached with chintz curtains in Dagenham, Essex and still attends every Hammers match and training session.
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