Today I'm going back 35 years to 1987 and Tottenham's League Cup 5th Round tie against West Ham United played at the Boleyn Ground in front of 28,648 fans. If you're a contrary bugger you may prefer it if I say that this was a Littlewoods Cup Quarter-Final played at Upton Park of course. It's all the same to me.
Many people used to make the mistake of referring West Ham's former home as Upton Park. In fact Upton Park is the district in which the ground was located and was the relevant stop on the District Line if you were going to watch West Ham but their stadium was officially called the Boleyn Ground. Sadly, the Boleyn is no more. West Ham took the decision to leave their traditional home and move to the Olympic Stadium in Stratford in 2016 and their old home has since been demolished to be replaced by a housing development. The decision to uproot the club isn't looked upon favourably by the majority of West Ham supporters who yearn for the proximity to the pitch that they had at the old stadium and it's certainly the case that some of the sightlines at the rechristened London Stadium are truly awful and certainly the worst in the Premier League. However, to be fair to the current board at West Ham, the move has catapulted the club into the upper echelon on Premier League clubs. The capacity at the old ground was just 35,016 whereas it is now 60,000 at the new stadium and that size differential makes a dramatic difference to match day revenues. The club also appear to have negotiated an extraordinarily good deal in terms of annual rental for the new stadium, so much so that plenty of questions were being asked about the position of the tax payer who had paid for the Olympic Stadium to be built in the first place. Certainly the London Stadium bears no comparison to the Boleyn Ground but, before they complain too loud, West Ham fans should consider whether their new found top half of the Premier League status makes yearning for the old place a price worth paying?
I have reminisced before about season 1986/87. It was possibly my favourite Spurs season ever. Spurs, under the management of David Pleat played with great style and were truly entertaining to watch. This was the season where Clive Allen scored 49 goals for Spurs in all competitions, a club record, but they ended the season with nothing to show for their troubles finishing third in the League, as losing Semi-Finalists in the League Cup and as losing Finalists in the FA Cup. If there is a "Tottenham way" then this was surely it!
The programme cover star is West Ham's captain Alvin Martin, pictured in front of Liverpool's Ronnie Whelan at Anfield. Alvin Martin is regularly used today as a co-commentator on Talksport radio and people are often surprised by his accent, imagining him to have hailed from somewhere in London. Martin actually has a strong Liverpudlian (or Scouse) accent having been born in Walton on Merseyside. He wasn't quite a one club man as he made a few appearances for Leyton Orient in the twilight of his career but between 1978 and 1996 he made 469 League appearances (and nearly 600 appearances in all) for "The Hammers" scoring 27 League goals. He has the rare honour of having been awarded two testimonials, such was the length of his professional career. He once scored a hattrick for West Ham against Newcastle United in 1986 which was notable for having been scored against three different goalkeepers! Martin's son also plays professional football and is currently a goalkeeper at West Ham.
The big prize awaiting the winner of this tie was a two-legged Semi-Final against Arsenal and Clive Allen gave Tottenham the advantage on the night with goal number 29 of his prolific season. The goal was poked home from close range following a run to the bye line and cross by cousin and former West Ham player Paul Allen. West Ham got back on level terms early in the second period, rather against the run of play with a goal described by commentator Brian Moore as "a goal out of nothing". Alan Devonshire's through ball was left by striker Frank McAvennie and Tony Cottee ran onto the ball and poked it under Ray Clemence's body to make the score 1-1. There was to be no further scoring on the night and the teams would have to reconvene back at White Hart Lane the following Monday night. The next time there would be no mistake!
CRB Match No. 482
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