A rare Hammers win

What have the following 11 players experienced which no other Hammer has in the last 50 years?

Dave Bickles, Ronnie Boyce, Peter Brabrook, Jack Burkett, Johnny Byrne, Brian Dear, Geoff Hurst, Joe Kirkup, Bobby Moore, Martin Peters and Jim Standen.

The answer is the taste of victory at Anfield. On Saturday September 14, 1963 this XI was the last West Ham team to beat Liverpool at Anfield. In a close game watched by 45,497 the Hammers beat the team which would go on to become the season’s Division I champions 2-1.

Incredibly in the ensuing 50 years West Ham has played at Anfield on 43 occasions (40 League games, 2 Football League Cup games and 1 Charity Shield match) and failed to register a single win. Liverpool has won 31 of these 43 encounters, with only 12 ending in draws. Though there have been some draws where the Hammers were unlucky not to have come away with all of the points. A sobering thought is that if West Ham has to wait another 50 years for three points from Anfield, it will not be in my and many, many other West Ham supporters’ lifetime!

This feature provides a reminder of September 1963’s rare achievement of West Ham’s landmark triumph.

Not surprisingly many of the match reports headlined Moore and focussed on his excellent individual performance. The following from the Newham Recorder was typical of the reporting: “Moore in particular deserves praise. He marshalled his “troops” like a general, helped to calm them down when pressure was at its highest and rarely wasted a ball no matter how he was being harassed by opponents.”  Bobby received generous plaudits despite conceding a penalty.  But the upside of the penalty for West Ham was for Jim Standen to pull of a tremendous save. 

The match was a game of two halves. The first was West Ham’s as they strode to a two goal half time lead. West Ham deserved their half time lead when their only two shots bought the two goals. The second half was Liverpool’s as West Ham was forced to defend for most of the half with Liverpool’s keeper hardly touching the ball.

11th minute: From a corner Johnny Byrne pulled it back to Burkett whose pass to Peters, deflected by Moore, enabled Peters to slot home a deliberately placed shot which was in the net before the home custodian could move.

33rd minute: A long clearance by Standen was tapped forward by Boyce to Hurst, who was practically unmarked.  Hurst took it in his stride, eluded a tackle by Yeats, and once more Furnell (Liverpool’s goalkeeper) was helpless to do anything about it. Geoff’s goal, his first of the season, was described in a West Ham programme’s match report as “a splendid solo effort”.

60th minute: A penalty was awarded when Moore was judged to have handled.  Many thought he had charged the ball away with his shoulder. But Jim Standen rescued the Hammers. Jim “had a great game in the West Ham goal. The 60th minute was his greatest moment.  Moore conceded a penalty and Moran hit the ball hard and low to Standen’s right, but the goalkeeper dived to make a magnificent save.” But for Standen West Ham might well have lost. The reported story is that Moore remembered Moran’s spot kick technique and as Moran prepared to shoot, Moore pointed to Standen’s right and Jim dived that way to make the save. 

This was the second successive home game that Liverpool’s Moran had failed to score from the penalty spot. 

64th Minute: Liverpool’s pressure soon delivered a goal. Roger Hunt’s net was described a fine individual effort which bought the Reds back into the game.