Half-a-century ago, former Everton schoolboy and subsequent 1974/75 FA Youth Cup finalist ALVIN MARTIN found himself on Merseyside with a ticket to ride. Today, the three-time Hammer of the Year recalls his make-or-break journey from Goodison Park to Upton Park…
While John Lyall’s Hammers were marching towards Wembley in the spring of 1975, one fresh-faced Merseysider was taking his first tentative steps towards establishing himself as a West Ham United legend.
Jumping onto an InterCity express and heading south to the bright lights of London, Evertonian turned East Ender Alvin Martin would go on to enjoy a fantastic, footballing journey.
But after turning down the offer of a semi-professional contract at Goodison Park, the ambitious, teenaged traveller’s career could so easily have hit the buffers.
“Playing for Netherton Boys Under-14s in the early-70s, our manager John McBride arranged a meeting with Ron Greenwood at Liverpool’s Adelphi Hotel,” recalls Alvin, who made 596 appearances during his 19 seasons in Claret & Blue. “I was so impressed, not that John knew West Ham's manager but because he’d got us into a right posh hotel!
“Ron advised me to try and stick with Everton because I’d rarely get to London but six weeks before leaving school in summer 1974, their Youth Development Officer, Ray Minshull, announced that the club’s preferred apprentice centre-halves were two schoolboy internationals – England’s Mark Higgins and Scotland’s Martin Mowat. I was only offered semi-professional terms, earning £8 for a four-day week.
“Feeling undervalued, I never felt I’d belonged at Goodison Park during my three-and-a-half years there and knew I wasn’t going to get a decent crack of the whip. I wanted full-time terms and told my Dad, Albert, that I wasn’t signing for Everton.
“I got myself two, one-week trials – the first at Queens Park Rangers and the second at West Ham. It was a proper ‘sliding doors’ moment. What if I stay? What if I go? Once I’d left, there’d be no going back to Everton if it all went wrong.
“Experience tells me I wouldn’t make that decision today – why would you turn your back on both your home city and a contract to take a gamble like that?
“Academically, I hadn’t achieved the best exam results and didn’t have a clue what I’d do if I didn’t make it as a footballer. I‘d no alternative but to give it absolutely everything.
“QPR were in the middle of pre-season training, which really sharpened my fitness and, having done well in a game against their first-team, they’d asked me to stay on for another week. I’d that trial booked at West Ham, though, so typical Scouser thinking on his feet, I told QPR my parents had booked a family holiday,” grins the 17-times capped England international. “Arriving at Upton Park, I went to my digs in Dongola Road, where Mr & Mrs Dexter showed me my room. ‘A double bed?’ I thought. ‘I’ve only got a single, back home.’
“Then, I discovered that a Welsh lad – ‘Jonesy’ – was also on trial and we had to share! Me and Jonesy spent every night teetering on opposite, far edges of that mattress!
“At Everton, I didn’t get anywhere near the senior players but at Chadwell Heath I was sitting with the likes of Billy Bonds, Trevor Brooking, Clyde Best and Mervyn Day. That was so uplifting.
“Come Friday, Ron Greenwood called me over. ‘We’re giving you an apprenticeship,’ he smiled. That was one of life’s great moments, on a par with seeing your kids born, getting married or passing your driving test!
“Dad was relieved and happy, when I telephoned home. ‘If you don’t make it during these next two years then don’t blame anyone else but yourself,’ he warned. The pressure was on – I’d absolutely no choice but to win that professional contract because I couldn’t go home to Merseyside, tail between my legs with nothing else to fall back on.
“That two-year period is the richest educational window in any player’s career,” insists Alvin, who stands in fifth place in the Club’s all-time appearances chart. “Football goes from being fun to your job and your life. You’re now on an elevated path, training full-time and expected to learn quickly. Despite picking up injuries and suffering setbacks – no matter what – you’ve got to keep improving throughout.
“While I found myself in the youth squad amongst a great group of teenagers managed by Ronnie Boyce, 1974/75 hadn’t started too well for the first-team. When Ron then moved ‘upstairs’ and John Lyall took over, no-one had any inclination they’d win the FA Cup, come May.
“Even today, I can’t get my head around the fact that Ron Greenwood still took so much interest in my development. ‘C’mon Alvin, we’ll show Everton,’ he’d smile. When I got rushed to hospital with appendicitis as a 16-year-old, he even came to visit me. I can still see those disbelieving faces as West Ham’s manager walked onto the ward.
“Whenever Ron spoke, you listened. A highly intelligent coach, he’d an ability to convey things so simplistically. If only my teachers at Warwick Bolam High School had been like him!
“I moved into new digs in Lonsdale Road, where Nell and Jim Conway were also putting up Keith Robson who’d just signed from Newcastle United. ‘Robbo’ became one of the stars of 1974/75 and really looked after me. Lending me his jackets, he’d take us to Ilford’s Room at the Top nightclub, where he’d pay my entrance fee and share of the whip.
“Highly motivational, he’d casually say: ‘Boycie said you were outstanding today.’ Things like that gave me such a big lift.
“Once, Robbo left his pay-slip on the sideboard – he was earning £125 per week compared to my apprentice’s wage of eight-quid. I told myself: ‘That’s where I’ve got to get to.’ I was disciplined and meticulous throughout my career and, although we laugh about it today, Robbo’s colourful lifestyle taught me everything I needed to know about what not to do if I wanted to become a professional footballer.
“Training on the adjoining pitch, the first-team coaches would shout: ‘Boycie, we need a player.’ Everyone hoped it’d be them because it was a great opportunity to show John what you could do,” continues Alvin, recalling a painful early lesson. “Having got picked, I was well-pleased when I nut-megged regular full-back, John McDowell. Seconds later, though, Billy Bonds wiped me out with one of those trademark Bonzo tackles!
“As the 1974/75 FA Youth Cup unfolded, we beat Charlton Athletic (3-1) at a very run-down Valley before knocking out Watford (2-0) at the Boleyn Ground to set-up another home-tie against Liverpool.
“Coming from Bootle, that was a big game and Dad travelled down. Still only 16, I was facing 18-year-olds including centre-forward Max Thompson, who’d already made his first-team debut at Anfield. Someone trod on my hand but no way was I coming off and, in the end, goals from Geoff Pike and Paul Brush gave us a 2-0 win. That made Dad’s journey home on the overnight milk train really worthwhile.
“After facing Max, I then came up against Chelsea’s Tommy Langley, who was one of the country’s brightest prospects. I’d seen him play for England Youth at Tranmere Rovers, where he’d been head and shoulders above everyone else. We thought we were out after only drawing 2-2 at Upton Park but we played really well to win the Stamford Bridge replay (2-1).
“That meant a semi-final against Middlesbrough,” recalls Alvin. “In the first-leg at Ayresome Park (0-1), we fell behind before they broke away again. Against all odds, I got level with their striker, slid in, came out with the ball and – nothing flash – calmly passed to a team-mate. That was one of the best tackles of my entire career and, back at the Boleyn Ground, we won 2-0 to reach the final.
“There’d only be 200 people on the touchline at Chadwell Heath, so playing in front of larger crowds at big stadiums brought added pressure and I’m told that there were 10,227 at Upton Park for the first-leg against Ipswich Town (1-3).
“Not only had we been playing to win for our Football Club but we’d been playing for our futures, too. Everyone thinks they can spot a player and we wanted people going home telling their mates they’d just seen someone who’d go on to play for the first-team.
“We were also beaten at Portman Road (0-2) in front of a 16,247 crowd but they were a great side and – like Ron and John’s West Ham – if you were good enough at Ipswich you’d get your chance. John Wark, Russell Osman, Keith Bertschin and David Geddis each broke into Bobby Robson’s first-team.
“We were all competing against each other for a professional contract and there were fine lines between success and failure in our FA Youth Cup final squad,” contends Alvin, who was awarded 13 of his 17 full international caps – including a start against Paraguay (3-0) at Mexico ‘86 – by future England boss Robson. “Although ‘Brushy’, ‘Pikey’, Alan Curbishley and myself played for the first-team, others looked good enough to break through, too, yet they didn’t get offered anything.
“None of us could figure out why Terry Sharpe didn’t get offered professional terms. ‘Sharpey’ was my best mate and he went on enjoy a distinguished career in the Metropolitan Police before sadly passing away last year.
“Thankfully, most of the others ended up carving out good jobs for themselves in other walks of life,” concludes Alvin, who would go on to lift the FA Cup with victory over Arsenal (1-0) at Wembley, in 1980. “I was just so fortunate to join West Ham United as a 16-year-old and get such a great footballing education. It’d been my destiny to get on that train to London and it proved to be the best decision I ever made…”
