talkSPORT’s Ian ‘Moose’ Abrahams catches up with former West Ham United winger and current Maidenhead United manager Alan Devonshire, who famously helped the Hammers beat Chelsea 4-0 back in 1986...
Down the years, West Ham United versus Chelsea has provided drama, heartache, controversy… in short, the lot!
We’ve had Julian Dicks and John Spencer clashing in 1995; Sir Trevor Brooking recall match-winner Paolo Di Canio and mastermind a 1-0 win in 2003; José Mourinho angrily accuse Sam Allardyce of playing 19th Century Football after a 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge in 2014, then sent to the stands at the Boleyn Ground the following year...
Oh yes, it’s fair to say this fixture has never been dull.
My first memory was 1978, the year we went down. There weren’t too many highs, but the 3-1 win over Chelsea at Upton Park was one. Bill Green scored his only West Ham goal in that game, his son, Paul, is the assistant manager of Chelsea Women.
Three years later, as we romped to the Second Division title, we thumped our West London rivals 4-0. Apt in the year of the first London Marathon, that West Ham should run away with the game. David Cross scored, obviously, and Trevor Brooking got two. Chelsea were managed by Hammers legend Geoff Hurst and Brooking remembers upsetting his old teammate with “two of the best goals I ever scored. Hursty could never forgive me for scoring two goals, he reckoned, I never scored two goals from outside the box and I scored two against his team which will always haunt him.”
Alan Devonshire scored the fourth goal that day for West Ham after rounding the goalkeeper, Petar Borota, but his best goal against Chelsea came in the year West Ham finished third in the old First Division, 1986. Stamford Bridge was nothing but a mud bath that March afternoon, but West Ham overcame the conditions and the Blues to win 4-0.
It is a game which has gone down in Claret and Blue folklore and the footage has been replayed repeatedly. Our first goal was pure genius. We were awarded a free-kick just inside the Chelsea half and I’ll let Dev himself tell the story…
“It was a big game at the time,” he told me, speaking this week. “We had games in-hand, and they were doing well in about six place.
“Galey (Tony Gale) always says that he should get the assist for my goal! We got a free-kick, Geoff Pike was fouled just inside the Chelsea half, and Galey touched the ball to me. We used to do it all the time where he would just touch the ball to me, a yard, maybe not even a yard, I just kept running towards the penalty area, they kind of backed off a little bit, and I decided to let fly, and it went in the top corner!”
Dev scored a similarly stunning goal at Manchester United the following season, and, although the goal at Stamford Bridge was clearly one of his favourites, as Dev told me, his personal favourite goal had been scored in 1980.
“Chelsea was one of my favourites because it was a big game and there was a lot riding on it and to be in a London derby as well, the fans were buzzing, and to win 4-0 it was probably one of my favourite goals, but not my best goal,” he explained. “My best has to be the FA Cup semi-final replay against Everton because of the occasion of it and all that, so that one means the most to me, but the Chelsea goal is up there!”
What made Dev’s Stamford Bridge strike even more special was that it came after he had recovered from a career-threatening knee injury suffered in an FA Cup third-round tie at Wigan Athletic in January 1984 – an injury which kept him out for 14 months.
“It was my first year back,” he confirmed. “I snapped three ligaments out of four in a cup tie against Wigan. They were completely gone. The doctors had to move my hamstring and put it in the middle of my knee to stabilise the knee, so the injury was quite a bad one. I’ve never known anybody to snap three ligaments out of four like I did.”
For those who never saw Dev play, he was absolutely fantastic, as was his story. West Ham signed him from non-league side Southall for just £5,000 in 1976, and he went on to win the FA Cup and play for England. He would have played more than eight times for the Three Lions, but for that injury suffered against Wigan.
Dev retired in 1992 after 15 years with West Ham and two with Watford, before moving into management.
In over 25 years in the dugout, he has managed 1,283 matches, including 695 across two spells at current club Maidenhead United of the National League, 388 at Hampton & Richmond Borough and exactly 200 at Braintree Town.
He enjoyed success at all three, and has regularly been tipped for a move into the EFL, but has stayed at non-league level. He is not bitter, though.
“I’m loving it,” he smiled. “At the end of the day, I’m 66 and I’ve managed 1,283 games.”
To put that into context, that’s 201 more games than David Moyes!
“Regarding not managing in the Football League, it is what it is. I’ve been happy at the clubs I’ve been at, and I was at each for a long time and left on my own terms. I’m pleased with what I received, and I know that I’ve helped a few boys along the way get a good living in the pro game and make a good career for themselves, and that’s my buzz.
“I know what it was like to go from non-league into full-time football and I like to think I’ve helped a few lads progress in that way.”
This weekend, Alan Devonshire’s Maidenhead United face AFC Halifax Town in the FA Trophy round of 16. It would be great to see Dev back at Wembley. this time leading his team out in a final, 43 years after crossing the ball that eventually led to Trevor Brooking’s winner in the FA Cup final.
Good luck to Dev not only this weekend but also for the rest of the season, and let’s hope for another memorable West Ham United versus Chelsea moment on Saturday!
