Winston Reid, who wrote his name into the West Ham United history books by scoring the final goal at the Boleyn Ground in May 2016, celebrates his birthday on 3 July...
London calling
Growing up as a kid in New Zealand, the only thing to watch on television at the weekends was the Premier League and it was always a dream of mine to play football in England one day.
Moving to Denmark with my mother and Danish stepfather as a ten-year-old, I ended up playing for FC Midtjylland in the Superliga and had been linked with a move to Italy’s Serie A. But soon after playing for New Zealand, and scoring against Slovakia, at the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals in South Africa, I did get that chance to go to England.
I was only 22 when I joined West Ham United, but it was such a great opportunity to play for a famous team in front of such passionate fans, while living in the amazing city that was London.
I made my Hammers debut at Aston Villa (0-3) on the opening day of 2010/11 – a campaign that would prove to be hard, not just for me but for everyone at the Football Club.
Although I was in a new country, experiencing a new league, I still wanted to play in every game but, reflecting on things now, manager Avram Grant was probably right in reckoning that I needed time to adapt to my new surroundings.
Overall, I made a dozen appearances and while I played in a few cup ties, too, I only actually started three league matches during a season that ended with us being relegated. Sadly, that’s football and things don’t always turn out as expected for new managers and new players but when I look back on my first season at West Ham, I certainly went on to learn a lot from those difficult moments...
Premier pursuit
I’d had a good relationship with Avram, who was unfortunate with how that first year had gone for him and, when Sam Allardyce then took over for 2011/12, everyone knew that he only had one bullet to fire us back into the Premier League.
Relegated, the Club invested heavily during pre-season and we simply had to win promotion at the first attempt. Although I’d scored the first of my ten goals for the Club in the FA Cup against Burnley (5-1) the previous season, I netted for the first time at home in the league against Millwall (2-1) in February 2012 and that one certainly went down well with our fans!
We’d had to learn how to play under pressure because the expectation to win matches and get promoted was always there, but Sam instilled a real sense as to what was needed. We’d been neck-and-neck with Southampton throughout but despite winning our penultimate match at Leicester City (2-1), where I scored my third goal of the season, and then beating Hull City (2-1) in our final game, eventual champions Reading somehow came from nowhere and we finished third.
We desperately needed promotion and there would’ve obviously been far less pressure if we’d ensured that we’d gone up automatically but in the end we had to take the more interesting route via the Play-Offs!
Having beaten Blackpool twice in the league (4-0 home and 4-1 away) everyone made us favourites to win the final comfortably but it proved to be a tough day in the end and we were probably lucky to see Ricardo Vaz Tê score late on to give us a 2-1 victory.
Nobody ever wants to lose a Play-Off final and even a week or so later I still found myself breathing huge sighs of relief that we’d won at Wembley. It was job done. We’d got ourselves up.
Hammer of the Year!
My second season at West Ham had seen me enjoy a run of games in the side and that always builds confidence, especially as we’d ended up getting promoted, too.
I’d also learned a lot from all those difficult moments that I’d experienced during my first campaign in England and was now back up in the Premier League playing regularly in central defence against the best players in the world.
The clubs that come up always seem to be the ones that are tipped to go straight back down again but our team did alright in 2012/13 and we ended up in a very respectable tenth-place.
Winning a dozen matches and drawing another ten, we would certainly have taken our mid-table finish when we’d kicked-off back in August. We beat fourth-placed Chelsea (3-1) while holding champions Manchester United (2-2) and runners-up Manchester City (0-0), too.
Personally, having made 37 appearances during the season, I was now feeling more accustomed to playing my football in England. Indeed, it was a very proud moment when I found out that I’d been voted the 2013 Hammer of the Year by the supporters. After all, I hadn’t been at the Club for long and it was only the first season during which I’d played regularly in the Premier League.
Looking at the list of all the Club’s great players who’d won the trophy down the years it felt so good to be acknowledged by the fans, who’d seen me playing for them week-in, week-out.
White Hart Gain!
As a defender, you’re always trying to stop opponents from scoring but it always helps when you can get one or two at the other end, especially in a London derby because it obviously means a lot for the West Ham fans to get a victory over their local rivals.
I always enjoyed the added edge of our derby games because all of the players knew that they had to perform just that little bit extra in those matches.
I’d already netted against both Millwall and Fulham but in early October 2013, I then scored at Tottenham Hotspur, too. Sitting in 18th, we travelled to White Hart Lane on a Sunday afternoon with a few players missing and needed to figure out a system to beat fourth-placed Spurs.
Without calling on any of his available strikers, Big Sam famously went for his ‘False Nine’ formation and those tactics worked perfectly for us. We’d kept it goalless until midway through the second-half but then I met Stewart Downing’s corner with a downward header and, although Kevin Nolan blocked it on the line (!), I followed up and netted the rebound to put us ahead.
And in a crazy quarter-hour, Vaz Tê doubled our lead before Ravel Morrison famously made it 3-0 with his brilliant solo run from the halfway line. We’d gone into that match as huge underdogs so it was a great day out for everyone connected with the Club. Big victories like that one at White Hart Lane become so much more memorable as you grow older.
Bye Bye Boleyn
Who could ever forget our final season at the Boleyn Ground?
That place had created so many memories for both players and fans down the years and the 2015/16 campaign was certainly no different.
By now, Slaven Bilić had taken over and created a great team spirit amongst the squad. We played some really exciting and entertaining football that season and everyone was enjoying themselves although, as a defender, sometimes there was a bit too much end-to-end action for my liking!
Throughout the season, we were challenging for a Top Four spot all the way through until April. We’d won at Arsenal (2-0), Liverpool (3-0), Manchester City (2-1) and Everton (3-2), while drawing at Manchester United (0-0) and Chelsea (2-2), too. And in our last season at Upton Park we’d beaten Chelsea (2-1), Liverpool (2-0) and Spurs (1-0) as well as drawing with City (2-2) and Arsenal (3-3). Unfortunately, we started falling off a bit towards the end, conceding too many late goals.
The last-ever match at the Boleyn Ground was against Manchester United – a Tuesday night of early-May mayhem. I’ve never, ever seen so many people gathered in one place and, although there were 34,602 inside the stadium there were many thousands outside, too. It was absolute chaos and my wife, Yana, had to abandon our car on her way to the game.
The kick-off was delayed and when the game finally kicked-off at 8.30pm the atmosphere was just incredible. Diafra Sakho got us off to a great start before Anthony Martial’s two goals looked set to spoil the night. But after Michail Antonio equalised, I then headed us in front with just ten minutes remaining.
We ended up winning 3-2 and my goal proved to be the last one ever scored at the Boleyn Ground – I certainly wasn’t planning that but in football things can work out in very funny ways sometimes!
Despite leaving the ground well beyond midnight, it was still chaotic outside and we now had to walk around looking for our car! Thankfully, we finally found it parked, unscathed, outside an East End pub. It’d been a good evening and a great way to finish things off at the famous old Boleyn Ground.
An early Swan-song
At first it was difficult moving into London Stadium – it wasn’t the arena itself more the general surroundings – and as we soon discovered, if you don’t hit your stride you’ll struggle.
While we didn’t perform anywhere near to our levels of the previous season, thankfully we gradually got into a bit of a groove in 2016/17 and only ended up four places lower in eleventh.
I look at West Ham United today and – while acknowledging all of the Boleyn Ground’s history – with its 62,500-capacity crowds, the move to Stratford has definitely taken the Club in the right direction.
In March 2018, though, I was injured in a goalmouth scramble at freezing Swansea City (1-4). I got knocked unconscious, slipped awkwardly and was stretchered off in a neck brace.
Although I didn’t realise it until the next day, I’d suffered a freak knee injury when falling onto the icy surface. At first, the medical team reckoned I’d be out for four months, which then turned into an entire year and, although I played in a pre-season friendly and for the U23s, I had to wait until November 2019 for my first senior game – New Zealand’s friendly against Republic of Ireland in Dublin.
I joined Major League Soccer side Sporting Kansas City on loan before returning from the United States and then joining Brentford in February 2021, again on loan. I’d known manager Thomas Frank from my teenage years in Denmark, where he’d been an opposing coach and I also knew their then Co-Director of Football Rasmus Ankersen from FC Midtjylland, too. I enjoyed my time at Brentford and it was great to play in another Championship Play-Off final – ironically against Swansea – and help them win promotion.
I’ve only got good things to say about Brentford and, for a relatively small club, they’ve done so well since arriving in the Premier League. Other teams can simply go out and buy but they’ve had to find their own way of identifying and developing their players and it’s good to see a club like Brentford establishing themselves in the top-flight.
I finally left West Ham in September 2021 and, sadly, that game at Swansea those three year-and-a-half years earlier had proved to be my 222nd and final appearance for the Club. Injuries are always part and parcel of football and while I could feel bitter about that knee injury, I take comfort from the fact that I enjoyed a good run.
Looking back, I could’ve only been in my early-20s but I was nearly 30 when it happened.
Having played my final match for New Zealand in 2022, my family and I are now living in Dubai and we’ll probably stay here with our kids for a few more years. Right now, it’s just a place in time but we’ll definitely be coming back to the UK at some stage because after being a West Ham United player for eleven years, London is certainly still our home.
