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Derek Scott was the last Burnley player to score at The Boleyn Ground in a 2-1 defeat in September 1979, the date of our last league visit there.
The main reason for playing them now was a decision made by the West Ham board of directors in the summer of 2001 and that was the decision to give the manager’s job to The Sinister One Glenn Roeder.
It was just about inevitable that it would lead to relegation and indeed it did although he was slow off the mark and it did take him two years to achieve it. He did it in style though and started off by slagging off his predecessor Harry Redknapp for leaving him with poor players and then signing players with the Premiership quality of Tomas Repka.
The two sets of fans will both want to win on Saturday but the dislike of Roeder is something they certainly have in common.
He missed the end of last season with illness but appeared set to continue for some time after returning to work and he struck lucky with the bargain of the year when he signed David Connolly on the cheap from Franchise.
But then the fun started again and he was blasted by the Republic of Ireland striker after leaving him out on the opening day at Preston. But it didn’t end there and there was then the farce of refusing to use the dressing rooms at Rotherham.
That was it and The Sinister One was no more – on his way with Trevor Brooking taking over as caretaker. The once well respected Hammers then upset John Madejski by poaching his manager Alan Pardew. He is currently still on gardening leave but is clear to start work at West Ham on Saturday although Brooking will still be in charge.
Despite all the turmoil they are doing well enough and are currently in fourth place having lost only two games all season with the latest being a 1-1 home draw against Norwich, a result they achieved without both Defoe and Connolly who were bother suspended.
Brooking wasn’t impressed with the performance, the third home draw of the season, and admitted that it was not the sort of form that would see the Hammers as promotion candidates.
They scored early with a Marc Edworthy own goal although loan player Neil Mellor is ludicrously trying to claim it. Edworthy turned in a cross that was going across goal and there is no way it could be anything but an own goal.
West Ham lined up: David James, Wayne Quinn, Christian Dailly, Ian Pearce, Tomas Repka, Matthew Etherington (Anton Ferdinand 84), Michael Carrick, Niclas Alexandersson, Kevin Horlock (Rob Lee 45), Richard Garcia (Don Hutchison 69), Neil Mellor. Subs not used: Stephen Bywater, Matthew Kilgallon.
The Clarets will be looking to get back to winning ways against a side unbeaten at home this season following Tuesday’s heavy defeat at Ipswich.
Click HERE to see West Ham’s results this season.
Past Results in the last 20 years
There have been no meetings between the two clubs in any competition in the last 20 years but you can click HERE
to see earlier results against West Ham dating back toa 5-1 win in 1923.One from the past
Adamson lashes armchair critics
West Ham 0 Burnley 1 (Waldron)
Football League Division 1 – Saturday 6th October 1973
As Burnley prepared to take on West Ham the town was hit with a bombshell, it was to lose its brewery. Having been taken over by Bass Charrington news was revealed that the Massey’s brewery on Westgate was set to close its doors.
It was considered devastating news for the town with the name Massey, so long the familiar name on the back of the Burnley programme, soon to disappear forever.
On the football side the Burnley fans were travelling down to London on the League Liner. It was to be the second time we would use the train having been the first club to take advantage of it back in January for our match at QPR.
This time though it was those who were prepared to pay more who got first choice, yes Burnley FC were favouring those fans who were prepared to dig deeper, and tickets were put on sale first to those prepared to pay for meals on top of the train fare of £3.75. It was to be an extra £3.60 for lunch and dinner of an extra £1.80 for dinner only.
Clarets’ winger Leighton James was in fine voice too and rabbitting on about the World Cup. He thought that England would fail to qualify (they did fail) but Wales would go through as group winners to the finals in Munich. They were promptly hammered in Poland and neither got through. Taffy was getting some stick from the Burnley fans for that one.
On to the game though and Peter Higgs of the Burnley Express was calling for Burnley to bring to an end a dreadful run of results at West Ham’s Boleyn Ground. We hadn’t won there for twelve years and had suffered eight defeats and just two draws in that time.
The worry was that we were playing a team who were struggling to find form and they were next to bottom without a win and only four points from draws. Meanwhile Burnley were third in the old First Division with Leeds and Coventry the two sides above us.
We went into the game with three wins and a defeat away from home all season. We had beaten Sheffield United, Spurs and Wolves but had lost the previous away game at Ipswich (let’s hope that is significant).
We needn’t have worried about all the stats though and we played well and dominated for much of the game, once again picking up maximum points. Martin Dobson was in fantastic form and by playing so well in London he even had the national papers calling for him to be brought into the England squad.
The biggest surprise was that it took us 65 minutes to score what proved to be the only goal of the game and what a goal it was especially coming from a central defender. Martin Dobson, he just had to be involved in the move, won a header and found Colin Waldron who had found himself up the field.
Waldo played the ball to Geoff Nulty who chipped a wonderful return ball which the defender took on his chest before beating Bobby Moore with ease and stroking a right footer into the bottom corner.
It was shortly after that when the fun started and it was all following a foul by Doug Collins on Hammers’ forward Ted MacDougall. The Flour Man didn’t like it, got up and head butted the Burnley midfielder and was promptly sent off by referee Ron Crabbe.
That night, with it being the main match on BBC’s Match of the Day they looked at the incident and despite Collins having clear marks on his face to show the incident Jimmy Hill suggested that the PFA should look into players feigning injury.
Burnley boss Jimmy Adamson went crazy and called for an end to television replays which he said were damaging the game. "The television people are doing a great disservice to football by analysing players actions," screamed the Burnley boss.
"It’s like big brother is watching you. They are not content to show the match but are now using slow motion replays and trying to show people up. It is unfair to the referees who have to make a decision on the spur of the moment. It is sickening."
What would Jimmy have to say about today’s television coverage of football?
But it was a pleasant journey home for Burnley fans with two more points even if the outward journey was not all it could have been. The League Liner turned up almost an hour late and then only made it to Blackburn with Burnley fans having to travel in a cattle truck to pick the train up.
Many fans rushed and did get to the ground in time but for those who chose to take the club’s specially made arrangements to get them there from Euston sadly missed over half an hour of the game.
I wonder why the League Liner only had a short life?
The teams that day were,
West Ham: Mervyn Day, Keith Coleman, Frank Lampard, Billy Bonds, John McDowell, Bobby Moore, Robert Lutton (Kevin Lock 80), Pat Holland, Ted MacDougall, Trevor Brooking, Bryan Robson.
Burnley: Alan Stevenson, Peter Noble, Keith Newton, Martin Dobson, Colin Waldron, Jim Thomson, Geoff Nulty, Ray Hankin, Paul Fletcher, Doug Collins, Leighton James. Sub not used: Billy Ingham.
Referee: Ron Crabbe (Exeter).
Attendance: 23,604.