Monday 29th November 1982
West Ham United 2 Lincoln City 1 (Milk Cup Third Round Replay)
The travelling faithful were back in East London the following Monday night as the replay with West Ham now went ahead. With Marshall Burke suspended after being sent off against Cardiff his place was taken by the now fit-again Stuart Hibberd. The 21-year-old midfielder, like Phil Turner, a product of City’s nursery side in Sheffield had broken into the first team midway through the previous season and had been a regular starter until the signing of Burke. Colin Murphy had just been permitted to strengthen the squad with the signing of utility defender Gordon Simmonite from Blackpool for £5,000 but the former Boston United man was cup-tied, so the substitute’s place was given to young Gary Strodder.
Changes to the West Ham side from the first match saw Van der Elst in the starting lineup in place of Alan Devonshire whose injury had forced him to miss any involvement in the recent England match. Billy Bonds started in defence as former Tottenham and Norwich winger Jimmy Neighbour came into the side for only his sixth game of the season. Now 32, Neighbour had won the competition with Spurs all the way back in 1971. In place of Paul Brush West Ham’s regular left back Frank Lampard came into the side after being suspended for the game at Sincil Bank. Perhaps rather unjustly thought of in later years as merely being the father of his son of the same name, the brother-in-law of Harry Redknapp and the uncle of Jamie Redknapp, Lampard senior had a distinguished career in the game in his own right. Coming through the youth ranks, the now 34-year-old would be another of the Hammers’ long-serving players, finishing with 660 appearances and winning two England caps along the way.
On the subs’ bench West Ham brought in teenage striker Bobby Barnes who had made just a handful of first team appearances for them. After being a fringe first team player for several seasons he would go on to be a fairly prolific scorer with lower division teams such as Aldershot and Northampton.
The attendance was around 300 lower than for the game at Sincil Bank and was down by 8,000 from West Ham’s previous home game – perhaps there’s nothing new about home games with lower division clubs attracting lower attendances.
Although City forced a succession of corners the early chances fell to West Ham with Jimmy Neighbour and Paul Goddard putting shots over the bar. However, despite taking the game to the home side, as in the first game it was the Imps who fell behind. In first half injury time a high cross into the Imps’ box was not dealt with and Phil Turner ended up giving away a penalty. Although David Felgate brilliantly parried Ray Stewart’s spot kick the West Ham full back reacted quickest to fire the loose ball into the net.
Felgate was in action again early in the second half with two fine saves from Francois Van der Elst but City again put the home side under pressure with Turner shooting inches wide. Gordon Hobson had a chance when he raced clear and rounded goalkeeper Phil Parkes but shot wide of the empty goal, but West Ham replied with a shot over the bar from Goddard. A deserved equaliser came from City in the 73rd minute after good work by Derek Bell saw George Shipley put in a shot which went into the net off Hammers player Sandy Clark.
A West Ham substitution saw young Bobby Barnes replace Neighbour before Glenn Cockerill came close after breaking from the hallway line. Outpacing Billy Bonds and Alvin Martin he then stranded Stewart only to see his shot strike Parkes’s thigh and go inches wide for a corner. Extra time saw tiredness affecting both sides, and just as it looked as if a second replay would be necessary the following night West Ham hit the winner with four minutes remaining. David Carr headed the ball clear following a corner but Stuart Hibberd lost the ball on the edge of the area to Van der Elst. He crossed to Martin who headed the ball down for Clark to beat Felgate from close range.
West Ham manager John Lyall admitted Lincoln were the better side, saying “we got a result we didn’t deserve,” while Colin Murphy said that “for two or three matches our game has seemed a bit flat, but it was all there again…A great performance, and I thought we were desperately unlucky.”
The following weekend City received some national exposure when their home game with Millwall was featured on ‘Match of the Day’ and soon after that came a 9-0 thrashing of Bournemouth which was to be the high point of the season.
City were still in first place at the end of January although the effects of having a small playing squad had started to catch up. Colin Murphy wished to boost the squad by the signing of two attacking players – Ross Jack from Norwich City, and John Thomas from Bolton – but the outlay of around £32,000 was vetoed by club chairman Gilbert Blades.
Matters then came to a head following a 3-0 home defeat by Portsmouth, and two further home defeats which left City hanging on to the third promotion place. Protests by supporters, which included death threats to the chairman and the vandalising of his property led to the resignation of the entire board of directors. Two games later a new board, headed by former chairman Dennis Houlston was in place with City still third, but although it was announced that Murphy could now have the two players he had wished for they did not arrive until the close season.
New players did come in to boost the squad numbers, with former Wolves centre half Colin Brazier, attacking midfielder Chris Thompson on loan from Bolton and veteran striker Ernie Moss who joined for a small fee from Fourth Division Port Vale, but City started to slip down the table and two wins in the last three games of the season did no more than see them into a final placing of sixth.
As for West Ham, they went on to beat fellow First Division side Notts County in the next round before going out of the competition to eventual winners Liverpool with a 2-1 defeat at Anfield. In the league, after remaining in the top five placings until early January they eventually finished eighth, their highest league finish for ten years.