Anyone remember what they were doing on November 8th 2003? It’s a date that sticks in my mind as it was the day West Ham lost 4-3 to West Bromwich Albion after being 3-0 up! It’s also the date I went to my first Hammers game at Upton Park.
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Yes I couldn’t have chosen a game to more perfectly encapsulate everything that is to support West Ham United; the highs, the lows, the controversies, bitter disappointments and of course glorious failure.
There I sat in the Bobby Moore upper which would later be my vantage point for glorious wins over Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool and Manchester United; but for this day it was West Bromwich Albion who were the adversaries.
The season before both clubs were in the Premier League but had dropped through the trap-door into the then first division so when a Jermain Defoe strike and a Brian Deane brace put us 3-0 up I was in ecstasy, we all were; the Boleyn was in good voice as we goaded all things Albion and praised all things West Ham.
What happened next was truly incredible and yet’ typical West Ham’ as we managed to concede 2 quick fire goals as Rob Hulse made us pay for the kind of defending you’d expect from Christian Dailly, Tomas Repka and David James… and if throwing away our lead wasn’t enough we lost our star striker in Defoe to a red card after a reckless lunge just before half time.
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Down to ten men and with the Irons’ faithful rapidly losing faith in the side a Brian Deane own goal brought parity to the score line as he completed the most unusual of hat tricks on his debut, leaving Lee Hughes to fire in the winner and secure memorable 4-3 win for West Brom at Upton Park.
I left the Boleyn ground that evening not quite sure what I had just witnessed…but I was instantly hooked and became a season ticket holder not long after.
As far results go it literally couldn’t have been worse; fortunately I managed to forge much better memories during the coming years.
