WEST HAM UNITED 2 CITY 0
League Division 1
9th May 1987
attendance 18,413
Scorers Cottee(30), Brady(51)
Ref B Stevens
City Nixon, Clements, Wilson, Redmond, McCarthy, Langley, May, McNab, Moulden, Stewart, Simpson – sub White(45)
West Ham McAlister Potts, Orr, Keen, Strodder, Brady, Ward, McAvennie, Robson, Cottee, Ince – sub Dolan(67)
FROM THE PRESS BOX
CITY ARE SUNK WITHOUT A FIGHT
FRANK MCGHEE WRITING IN THE OBSERVER 10TH MAY 1987
The loyal army who travelled with City, though chairman Field Marshall Peter Swales was a notable absentee, hoped, if nothing else, to see their club go down fighting. They were denied even that meagre consolationn because the most brutal truth about a defeat which brought relegation for the second time in four years is that one of its main causes was lack of the teeth-gritted determination to survive.
Against opponents without the heart to make it hard, West Ham are always inclined to flourish.
They were encouraged to play the game that suits them best, free-flowing, bright as the afternoon itself, accurate and so much more effective in the most vital department of all, finishing.
City may have felt aggrieved that the first half tackle by Robson that was to cost them the second-half service of their skipper and centre half McCarthy was late, over-vigorous and, though unpunished, blatantly illegal.
But they cannot deny that that one incident apart, there is no more appropriate place to test any club’s right to compete with the best than Upton Park because West Ham by tradition gives everyone the chance to play football. They also, of course, exercise their own right to do the same, and yesterday did very much more of it.
West Ham’s superiority sprang primarily from the midfield created by Brady’s mind and Robson’s muscle. It left City’s McNab and Langley hopelessly out-gunned. Up front, Cottee and McAvennie were considerably too sharp for City’s defence with Redmond, who started the season so encouragingly, particularly lax in allowing Cottee a succession of early chances.
West Ham, in fact, could have had it finished when Ince hit the bar with a header and Brady uncharacteristically sidefooted a chance straight at keeper Nixon before City created their first danger. Then the most, indeed their only, accomplished forward, Stewart had one 27th minute header saved superbly by the last elastic inch of West Ham keeper McAlister’s plunge to his right.
The West Ham goal three minutes later was typical of this team in that it was built around their priceless basic principle of passing to each other. Full back Potts started it by sending McAvennie up the left for a deep cross hit waspishly from outside the area by Ward and any chance that Nixon might have covered and saved it was prevented by a devlish close-range diversion by the scorer Cottee.
City’s defence was undoubtedly weakened by the absence of McCarthy in the second half and this was exposed in both the build-up and the execution of West Ham’s second goal in the 51st minute. McAvennie got through down the middle onto a Brady pass, then saw his shot half blocked by Nixon and cleared by Wilson for a corner. From this, the ball eventually reached Brady who, with a touch of pure class, waltzed past two men before his educated left foot directed it into the corner of the net. It was genius which made it look effortless.
City’s most aggressive action in the whole game was perhaps the comprehensive foul by full back Wilson, now on his way to Chelsea, which flattened Ward.
True, Stewart did manage to hit an upright with one late shot, sent another soaring to high and forced a respectable save with a header. But this was at a stage when West Ham tolerance had become torper, so much so that the mystery of the enthusistic pitch invasion by Hammers’ fans at the end of a mediocre season was explained only by a closer look into their main stand. The whole cast of Eastenders were there.