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Mr Anon 10:33 Sun Feb 15
Boys of 86/87

Unfortunately I was too young to remember this but have enjoyed readying about this successful era in our history.

My question is what happened after this. I know the next couple of seasons were bad result wise but what were the main reasons for us not building momentum?

Cheezey Bell-End 1:57 Mon Feb 16
Re: Boys of 86/87

When we had Kelly and Rosenior, we had the previous season's top goalscorers from the 3rd division. Leroy made the step up, but Kelly didn't.

I believe Allen McKnight works in hospitality for us. Now there was a shit keeper. Wasted lots of points for us.

PistonHammered 12:24 Mon Feb 16
Re: Boys of 86/87

Just like our '64 team the club was let down by ownership. Good organizations start at the top and it's impossible any other way.
They let Lyall drown when they should thrown him a life line. He should have moved to a back room job, they should have got in the best manager available at the time and they should have invested their profits into better players but they didn't.

They made their money and that was good enough. Small minded thinkers.

Spandex Sidney 12:23 Mon Feb 16
Re: Boys of 86/87

Kelly was a strange one. banged them in for everyone except us. Walsall, Leicester, Newcastle in particular. With us in the middle doing nothing? He had some big shoes to fill, quite frankly.

whu 12:22 Mon Feb 16
Re: Boys of 86/87

Mr Anon 10:33 Sun Feb 15
Boys of 86/87
Unfortunately I was too young to remember this but have enjoyed readying about this successful era in our history.

My question is what happened after this. I know the next couple of seasons were bad result wise but what were the main reasons for us not building momentum?

Terry Fucking Brown

On the upside, lined his own pockets with ST money for many a year whilst the club crept further and further into the mire

Cunt still sits upstairs. Couldn't make it up.

swindon hammer 12:17 Mon Feb 16
Re: Boys of 86/87

Cottee was the biggest loss. His guaranteed 20+ goals every season for the previous 5 years were keeping us up.

David Kelly was a poor replacement, as was Allen McKnight as a replacement for Phil Parkes.

Relegation in 89 was not a surprise. It had been coming for the last 3 years.

Iron Duke 12:03 Mon Feb 16
Re: Boys of 86/87

I don't see how there could be no doubt that it was the correct decision to get rid of Lyall. I think he would have re-built and got us back up. This is supported by the fact that he got Ipswich up later on. Who knows what would have happened if he had stayed? Maybe Bonds would have had more time to learn about coaching and would have been a better successor after a few years. Who knows?

After 84, we lost Devonshire to that horrific injury and Brooking retired. The difference in 85/86 was that at least Devonshire had a full season, and we had solid partnerships between Martin/Gale and Cottee/McAvennie. Martin and Gale had a lot of injuries after that, and we had to replace them with Strodder and Hilton. Even though McAvennie didn't score so much after that, I still think he was playing well. But when we sold him at the beginning of 87/88 we couldn't replace him.

Takashi Miike 12:00 Mon Feb 16
Re: Boys of 86/87

I remember speaking to george parris after a game during the 85-86 season and him saying he had to get a bus home

Spandex Sidney 11:57 Sun Feb 15
Re: Boys of 86/87

Ahh yes. We lived in Upton Park until the summer of 1982 and it was amazing west ham times for a youngster like me.

The players used to eat in the Aberdeen Steak house before a game when I was a kid and John McDowell used to live in a terraced house down Plashet Road! We just to go down and take the piss outside his house!

How times have changed?

swindon hammer 11:51 Sun Feb 15
Re: Boys of 86/87

Sidney,

From 80-84 we had an amazing time under Lyall.

FA Cup win in 1980, League cup final & division 2 champions in 1981 and then 3 seasons of top 10 finishes in 81/82, 82/83 & 83/84.

Apart from 85/86 which again was amazing we spent 4 out of Lyall's last 5 seasons fighting relegation before we eventually did go down.

My first ever trip to UP in 1987, I have vivid memories of Lyall Out being spray painted on the walls outside UP.

He should of been offered something upstairs but there was no doubt it was the correct decision to remove him as manager. Just should of been done a bit better.

fred flinstone 11:47 Sun Feb 15
Re: Boys of 86/87

It was all the fault of BFS IIRC

Spandex Sidney 11:42 Sun Feb 15
Re: Boys of 86/87

Yes mate, I take your point.

I remember him coming back with his Ipswich side (93/94 I think), I think we won 1-0 or something like that but they were the worst side i'd ever seen at the Boleyn. But he got a good reception, I'm glad because that was the last time we saw him there and was able to do that.

Buster 11:37 Sun Feb 15
Re: Boys of 86/87

Spandex Sidney 11:35 Sun Feb 15

Indeed, but can you imagine how he'd have been treated had WHO been around?

Thank fuck for the internet, hey?

Spandex Sidney 11:35 Sun Feb 15
Re: Boys of 86/87

Lyall was treated shamefully really. The supporters never should have done what they did but the club was worse, didn't they print like 60 odd words as a goodbye to the man that had given 35 years of his life to the club and delivered 2 major trophies and nearly another?

What doesn't get spoken about is the years after our early 80's promotion we never finished below 10th (I believe) before 86/87? He deserved better.

swindon hammer 11:26 Sun Feb 15
Re: Boys of 86/87

I feel bad saying this but I remember getting home from school when I was 13 and being happy hearing on the radio that Lyall was sacked.

At that age I probably did not appreciate the job he had done but all I knew was from 84/85 (the season I started supporting West Ham) to 88/89 when we got relegated we were in relegation battles for everyone of those seasons apart from 85/86.

The signings of Hilton, Mcqueen, Strodder, McKnight & Kelly were awful.

mallard 11:25 Sun Feb 15
Re: Boys of 86/87

John Lyall had made no signings during the close season, and it stayed that way until Stewart Robson was added in January. He was joined two months later by other new signings Gary Strodder, Tommy McQueen and Ireland international Liam Brady.

In this season which saw many player ravaged by injury, several academy players got their chance to play, including Kevin Keen, Paul Ince and future captain Steve Potts.

The West Ham fans were so disappointed with the team's underachievement during the season that Billy Bonds was voted Hammer of the Year, even though he only made 17 league and 7 cup appearances for the team.

Tony Cottee was the club's top scorer with 22 league goals and 28 in all competitions, but his strike partner Frank McAvennie disappointed with just seven league goals (11 in all competitions) after being the top flight's second-highest scorer the previous campaign, this being a large factor in the fact that the Hammers finished a lowly 15th in the league just a year after finishing third and being just four points short of their first top division title.

Spandex Sidney 11:25 Sun Feb 15
Re: Boys of 86/87

Alex Bunbury 11:16 Sun Feb 15

Yes mate, the first signing that season was Stewart Robson in January. McQueen, Strodder and Brady came shortly afterwards.

Fucking rank season really, was that the year Bonds won HOTY after about 10 appearances?! I think the injuries helped from the point of the academy, I think Potts made his debut that season?

Westham67 11:23 Sun Feb 15
Re: Boys of 86/87

I wasn't an era it was a season , we finished 15th , 16th and then relegated in the proceding years

Cheezey Bell-End 11:21 Sun Feb 15
Re: Boys of 86/87

The goal we conceded after 9 seconds v Charlton before losing 1-3 summed up that season.

It was the season after that the crowd turned on Lyall, particularly after losing the cup game v Barnsley 2-5 in extra time after being 2 up early on.
I remember Lyall being sacked. Wogan was interviewing Billy Graham who was in town to give a sermon at UP. BG made a comment about us needing divine help. Wogan replied 'certainly the manager does because he's just been sacked'. I think Lyall was the picture for that month on the club calendar too.

m11 11:16 Sun Feb 15
Re: Boys of 86/87

I think one of the crucial aspects was that everyone stayed fit in the days when rotation was what propellers did, not football managers!
Seem to remember ther were only 14 players used in the whole season

Alex Bunbury 11:16 Sun Feb 15
Re: Boys of 86/87

I don't think a single player was signed during the summer (I might be wrong on that). As soon as injuries hit the back up players were sub standard.

We actually started the season really well and were riding high again early on but I remember getting stuffed away at Newcastle live on TV, with Goddard starring for them, and it being downhill from then.

McAvennie also went off the boil. I don't think he got into double figures that season after 26 the previous year.

Spandex Sidney 11:15 Sun Feb 15
Re: Boys of 86/87

I remember the day Lyall got sacked like yesterday. I had a half day from work, I'd only been working a few months, and I picked up an early Evening Standard at Fenchurch St and it was the back page story with a pic of Lyall from behind sitting on the bench with his head down.

Sad day indeed for my 16 year old self.

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