Cast your minds back to the last time we found ourselves in the 2nd tier of English football, the then titled Coca Cola Championship, and after the disappointment of the play off final defeat to Crystal Palace the Hammers had to respond in their second attempt at promotion in 2004-2005.
With Pocket Pardew, a young Noble, Etherington, Sheringham, Zamora and Harewood the Hammers had a team predominantly made up on young hands with one or two older and wiser heads to keep their feet on the ground. After a summer clear out following the disappointment of the first visit to Cardiff, their first of what would prove to be three in a row. More experienced heads were brought in to stable to ship. Rebrov and Sheringham joined on free transfers whilst Luke Chadwick and Jimmy Walker followed shortly after also on free transfers. Whilst Carl Fletcher joined from Bournemouth for £275,000 and Malky Mackay who was the last man to sign in September joining from Norwich for £300,000.
Under Pardew, the team played with passion and guile, but at time the quality on show lacked and was similar to that we see on show today from Allardyce. And at a stage the Hammers looked set to miss out on promotion yet again but a run of only one defeat in the last ten games meant the Hammers claimed the last available play off place.
The only way I could describe the season is “topsy turvy”, the Hammers were world beaters one minute thrashing Plymouth 5-0 to awful the next losing 4-1 to Cardiff, but we wouldn’t expect anything else from West Ham would we? It’s the West Ham way after all.
There were many key players in the season for the Hammers with Sheringham, seeing in his 40’s in great style scoring 20 goals in 27 starts to prove that he still had it in the locker. He was closely followed by fans favourite Marlon Harewood who banged in 17 goals for the Hammers in 45 appearances for the claret and blue.
To the season itself, and the Hammers with dwindling attendances found themselves 7th after the first month of the season. Picking up home wins against Reading and Burnley with both games finishing 1-0 sandwiched in between was a 3-1 defeat to Wigan at Upton Park. The Hammers won 3-2 away at Crewe with Sheringham picking up a brace as the Hammers found themselves 3-0 up inside 30 first half minutes. Before future Hammer Dean Ashton popped up with two for Crewe to make the last eight minutes edge of the seat stuff. The Hammers ended August with ten points from six games and in 7th place.
An inconsistent month followed, after two early September wins the Hammers slumped and failed to pick up 3 points in the last three fixtures of the month. But continued their passage through to the 3rd round of the Carling cup to set up a mouth-watering away tie at Stamford bridge ( more on that in the next paragraph) as they beat Notts County 3-2 in the 2nd round. The Hammers ended September in 6th place with 18 points, after wins at away at Sheffield United and a home win against Rotherham followed by two draws against Ipswich and Derby respectively. The Hammers only defeat in September came against Forest at the city ground.
October was dominated by the Chelsea match where the Hammers played so bravely but alas fell to a 1-0 defeat to the Blues, despite Jimmy Walker making himself a Hammers hero saving a penalty from fans villain Frank Lampard. Anton Ferdinand hitting the woodwork was the closest the hammers came to equalising and taking the game to extra time. In the league the Hammers continued to pick up points on their way to promotion, winning three leagues beating Wolves, Stoke and Gillingham respectively. Only losing to QPR at Loftus road that month meant it was a relatively successful month for the Hammers as they picked up 13 points, ending the month with a 1-1 away draw at Plymouth.
November represented the worst month for the Hammers so far as they lost three and won twice, including their biggest defeat of the season a 4-1 thrashing by Cardiff. This was followed by a disappointing 1-0 away defeat to bitter rivals Millwall.
The Hammers ended 2004 in 7th place with 42 points from 26 games, Big Sam wouldn’t be happy if he was in charge back then as if goes against his 2 point promotion plan. But the Hammers went into the New Year level on points with rivals Millwall who found themselves in 6th place.
January proved to be a disappointing month for the Hammers as they won just one of the four Championship fixtures of the month winning away at Ipswich 2-0. This proved not to be the last time the Hammers were to win at Portman road by that score line.
The Irons followed a disappointing January with a strong February as the Hammers claimed nine vital points winning three of the four Championship fixtures, only losing away at Leeds 2-1. February provides its first memory for me from that season, West Ham United 5 Plymouth 0, a game I was at. Sheringham bagged a brace, Harewood a penalty, a bizarre goalkeeping howler meant the Argyle goalkeeper was left red faced as an own goal was awarded to him following a Rebrov corner kick and a Malky Mackay header meant the Hammers claimed their biggest win of the season. The Hammers finished February in 6th place on 54 points with a game in hand over the teams above them.
But as play off rivals approach them in March, the Irons become unstuck as they dropped vital points against Preston and Reading in the hunt for play off places. Preston turned the Hammers over 2-1 at the Boleyn whilst Reading beat the Hammers at the Madejski Stadium 3-1, with Dave Kitson bagging a hat trick against the Irons. The Hammers only went on to pick up two points in the month of March and slumped to 7th place, a point behind 6th place Reading.
But that month proved to be the proverbial kick up the backside the Hammers needed as they then went on a run to secure a play-off place. A run which consisted in only one defeat in 10 which started with an impressive away win at league leaders Wigan Athletic where goals from Sheringham and Harewood secured a 2-1 win. The Hammers though knew that results would have to go their way after a defeat at Sunderland meant that they were level on points with Reading but had played a game more.
So to the important away day at Watford, where realistically if the Hammers were to reach the Play- off semi-final they had to win and hope results go their way. West Ham did win thanks to goals from Anton Ferdinand and a penalty from Marlon Harewood led the Hammers to a 2-1 win. But they still knew that results would have to go their way. Away fans stood and waited for the final scores to come through. As it came through the tannoy, Wigan Athletic 3 Reading 1. West Ham fans blew a sighed relief and West Ham finished in 6th place after a season of ups and downs. And with Ipswich finishing 3rd the Hammers faced a tricky test against the Tractor boys.
The 14th of May came, My Dad and a friend of mine glued to TV screen, the home leg of the play-off semi-finals. The Hammers raced out of the blocks and flew into a 2-0 lead. As Harewood turned in a Etherington cross for his 17th goal of the season in the seventh minute, which was followed by the first of Zamoras four play- off goals, as he side footed Harewood’s cross past Kelvin Davis into the far corner of the net to send the home fans into raptures. The Hammers were 2 up in 13 first half minutes. But West Ham being West Ham they failed to capitalize on this flying start and make sure of their play-off final place. Instead the Hammers went onto concede two goals, one late in the first half (a Jimmy Walker own goal) the other midway through the second half (a Shefki Kuqi strike), to leave the home fans shocked. One Match report in the Guardian said this about the match; “West Ham put their fans through the wringer again on Saturday, even though there is not much left to be wrung. At Upton Park, triumph routinely gives way to disaster. They even have a song about it, something about forever blowing two-goal leads.”
Onto the second leg and the tale of Bobby Zamora’s wonder chip that sent the Hammers through to Cardiff, the sort of strike that you try on FIFA when your 3-0 up and having a mess about with your mates. A special strike from the Hammers supporting West Ham striker. The game itself before kick-off was on a knife edge following the Hammers capitulation at Upton Park and you would say the Tractor boys were narrow favourites ahead of the tie. But the Hammers grabbed the vital first goal of the tie as Zamora slotted home from Harewood’s squared ball to send the Hammers one nil up on the night, 3-2 up on aggregate. Then for the moment of magic, and I moment I got of my armchair to clap a moment of sheer brilliance that would not look out of place in any league in the world. Marlon Harewood ran the ball out of danger for the Hammers and placed a perfect long ball onto the right boot of Zamora who cushioned an inch perfect volley over Davis head and into the net to all but put the Hammers into the final at Cardiff.
I pleaded with Dad to get us tickets, and he assured me despite his best efforts they were hard to come by. I think he was as gutted as me if truth were told.
The final itself was a game that the Hammers just about deserved to win as they played the more fluent of football, and under pressure boss Alan Pardew saw his team save him from the chop as a Booby Zamora’s strike, who else secured a win at Cardiff. The Hammers returned to the Promised Land at the second attempt and managed to erase the memories which saw them lose at Cardiff to Palace 12 months earlier. A scene that will live long in the memory for me is seeing the Hammers faithful belt out Bubbles at Cardiff and seeing some of the players joining in the sing song will live long in my mind. I had finally seen us win something; the Hammers were back where they belonged.
Here’s hoping we do it automatically this time around as I don’t think our heart can take another play-off roller-coaster.
Come on You Irons!
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