Continuing our series commemorating the 50th-anniversary of the Hammers FA Cup final victory over Fulham, we recall the contribution made by late midfielder GRAHAM PADDON during the Club’s march to Wembley...
To a man, every member of the 1975 FA Cup winning squad acknowledges the role that Graham Paddon played during the Hammers triumphant trophy-lifting campaign.
Sadly, the much-missed midfielder passed away suddenly in Norfolk back in November 2007, aged just 57.
Graham made 152 appearances across his four seasons in Claret & Blue, scoring 15 times.
But upon arriving in the East End to complete his December 1973 transfer from Norwich City it looked like he might never kick a ball down West Ham way.
“I nearly didn’t sign,” Paddon told Hammers News Magazine nearly three decades later. “I’d taken the train down to Liverpool Street but only a taxi driver was waiting to meet me. That was a bit off so I got straight back onto the train, where a bloke said: ‘I thought you were signing for West Ham today?’ I told him that I wasn’t going to be doing that now because I couldn’t believe what the Club had done.”
Thankfully, upon arriving back in Norfolk, Graham had another change of heart after having a chat with wife, Pamela. At £170,000, he jointly became the most-expensive signing in Hammers history alongside Ted MacDougall, who coincidentally now moved in the opposite direction to Carrow Road.
“My time at West Ham was the most wonderful of my career,” Paddon would later confirm when recalling his three years at the Boleyn Ground that would see him collect an FA Cup winner’s medal before picking up a European Cup Winners’ Cup runners-up gong in 1976. “In any one-off match we could beat anyone and down our left flank we had full-back Frank Lampard, myself in midfield and new-signing Keith Robson further forward. We all had good left feet and were strong – the three of us developed an understanding that no one else could beat.”
Graham would play in all eight of the Hammers’ FA Cup ties, starting with the victory at Southampton (2-1).
And after winning at Swindon Town (2-1) in a replay, following a muddy draw (1-1) at Upton Park, West Ham then saw off Queens Park Rangers (2-1) in a fifth-round tie at the Boleyn Ground.
That set up a daunting quarter-final trip to Arsenal, where recently signed Rochdale rookie Alan Taylor marked his first-ever FA Cup start in Claret & Blue.
“Arsenal held no fears,” Graham had insisted. “Alan was drafted into the team and even though we all reassured him he’d be alright, he was still terrified. ‘Don’t worry, we’ll look after you,” I said. Then, at Highbury, I chipped one through for him to score before he got another one. That was that. Job done!
“Somehow, we then got away with a 0-0 draw in the semi-final against Ipswich Town at Villa Park. We were so poor that when we asked Ron Greenwood for our bonus he told us to go away! Then Alan came up trumps again in the replay at Stamford Bridge (2-1) and we were at Wembley.
“We were diabolical in the first-half of the final and Fulham should’ve been winning at half-time. We had to step it up a bit. Fortunately we did and it was a relief when Alan got our first goal.”
Having netted on the hour, Taylor’s FA Cup fairytale continued when he then secured his third double of the competition and a 2-0 victory with his second strike just five minutes later.
And it was all thanks to the oft-bearded or moustached, fair-haired Paddon, whose awkward, angled thunderbolt proved too hot to handle for fumbling Fulham goalie Peter Mellor and the on-fire forward pounced on the loose ball.
“Alan had again been nervous but their ‘keeper spilled the ball twice and he mopped up both times,” Graham had continued. “Afterwards, we went to the Dorchester Hotel but they ran out of beer so we spent the night down the road at the Grosvenor House instead! Later, I remember walking down Tottenham Court Road with my winner’s medal in my hand thinking: ‘What am I doing with this?’
“The East End people were brilliant to me. Those Hammers fans were top-notch and the parade on Sunday was fantastic, too. I’ll never forget it. Everyone – men, women, kids, babies, dogs even – was out on the street or hanging out of windows dressed in Claret & Blue. When we drove past the Black Lion pub in Plaistow, we asked them for a crate of beer. They said we’d have to pay for it. Do us a favour!”
Just 12 months later – having almost ripped the net off its hooks after launching an unforgettable, lethal, long-range cannonball in the Cup Winners’ Cup semi-final, first-leg at Eintracht Frankfurt (1-2) – Paddon then found himself playing in the final itself against Anderlecht (2-4).
In November 1976, though, Graham returned to Norwich City, where he played under manager John Bond – himself a 1964 FA Cup winner with the Hammers – before coincidentally being joined by Taylor, Robson and John McDowell, who had also made such a huge contribution during those two Claret & Blue cup campaigns.
In later years, Paddon embarked on a coaching, scouting and managerial career before sadly suffering a fatal heart-attack near Great Yarmouth in November 2007. He was just 57.
“To play with the likes of Billy Bonds, Frank Lampard and Trevor Brooking had been the highlight of my career, while Ron Greenwood and John Lyall were great, too,” Graham had contended. “West Ham were undoubtedly the best Club I played for.”
