West Ham United celebrates its 125th anniversary on 29 June – and as part of our celebrations we're counting down to the date with the Club’s #50GreatestMatches – brought to you by Monster Energy!
Since the Hammers were formed as Thames Ironworks FC in 1895, we have played in excess of 5,500 matches – reaching five FA Cup finals - and one women's FA Cup final, lifting European silverware and competing across the globe and enjoying thousands of memorable moments.
With your help and recommendations, we've whittled down that list of 5,500 matches to a top 50, featuring landmark goals, trophies held aloft, heroic individual performances and remarkable collective efforts.
We continue the #50GreatestMatches countdown by looking back at a sensational seven-goal victory over Leeds United...
When West Ham United clicked under Ron Greenwood, few opposition teams could live with them.
And that was certainly the case repeatedly in the closing two months of 1966, when Greenwood’s Hammers arguably produced the finest run of performances in the Club’s history.
First, on Guy Fawkes Night, Fulham were lit up as West Ham exploded to a 6-1 First Division victory.
Two days later, on Monday 7 November, Don Revie’s star-studded Leeds United were embarrassed 7-0 in a League Cup fourth round tie under the Boleyn Ground’s famous floodlights.
Amazingly, the free-scoring Irons were far from done, netting four more times in a 4-3 win at Tottenham Hotspur on 12 November, before returning home to dismiss Newcastle United 3-0.
Leeds gained some sort of revenge with a 2-1 First Division win at Elland Road to close out November, but Greenwood’s team hit back in style in December, scoring 21 goals in six matches.
West Bromwich Albion (3-0) and Blackpool (4-1 and 4-0) were beaten, while the Irons also shared ten goals in a dramatic 5-5 draw at Chelsea.
By the year’s end, West Ham’s final 12 matches of an historic 1966 had registered a scarcely believable 62 goals with the Irons scoring 42 of them – an average of 3.5 per game!
Geoff Hurst, whose hat-trick had secured the FIFA World Cup for England earlier that same year, was at the peak of his powers, scoring no fewer than 16 of those 42 goals, including four against Fulham and a hat-trick in the win over Leeds which we are focusing on today.
Revie’s Peacocks were a force to be reckoned with themselves, having finished as First Division runners-up the previous season, and were on their way to reaching the European Fairs Cup final.
But Leeds were no match, at all, for Greenwood’s West Ham on an unforgettable night in east London.
With Johnny Byrne likened to Real Madrid legend Alfredo Di Stefano for his all-round attacking performance, and Hurst again unstoppable, the Hammers tore into their opponents from the kick-off with a display full of verve and intent.
John Sissons scored the first of his own hat-trick inside two minutes, completing his treble just after the half-hour mark, before the Hammers’ England internationals took centre-stage.
Hurst made it 4-0 before half-time before adding a fifth and seventh either side of Martin Peters’ goal.
Despite not scoring, it was Byrne who was named Man of the Match, having played his part in five of West Ham’s seven goals.
A Leeds side containing two World Cup winning defenders, Jack Charlton and Norman Hunter, alongside Scotland legend Billy Bremner and Ireland great Johnny Giles, had been comprehensively outplayed, suffering their heaviest defeat in 32 years in the process.
West Ham would go on to reach the semi-finals, where they were defeated by West Brom, but their league form slumped in the New Year and they finished 16th.
But, for two glorious months at the end of 1966, the Irons were on top of the world.
