Sid Lambert takes us back 20 years to the 2004/05 season, when Alan Pardew’s Hammers secured a rollercoaster return to the Premier League...
A Boxing Day game at Upton Park was always a special occasion. No matter what shape the season had taken to date, there was something about the festive fixtures that captured the imagination.
The air was thick with the smell of burgers, cigarettes and alcohol. Green Street buzzed with anticipation. Whether that was people genuinely excited to see West Ham play football, or delighted to escape the family for a few blissful hours, was open to question. Nonetheless, come kick-off time the ground was alive.
And so were our Premier League dreams… but only just. The defeat at Preston two weeks earlier had left us clinging onto the last Play-Off spot. Automatic promotion was no longer a realistic possibility – our Jekyll and Hyde form over the first half of the season had seen to that.
We needed some stability. Some consistency. Some semblance of a strategy of how we were going to escape this dogfight of a division. With that in mind, Alan Pardew did what he’d done consistently in the face of adversity over the past year – he signed another player.
The 12th new arrival of a season when initiation songs were going on longer than the running of The Mousetrap, was Gavin Williams from Yeovil. It wasn’t quite a signing to set the pulse racing. Without wishing to be unkind to our new man, it didn’t feel like the sort of announcement that would send a message to the rest of the league. That may sound harsh, but I had reason to be cynical. Of the eleven previous new faces, only Teddy Sheringham could be considered an unqualified success.
Williams took a place on the bench for the visit of Nottingham Forest, a club whose fortunes posted ominous warning signs as to our future. Having been a mainstay of the top flight in the ‘80s and ‘90s, the East Midlanders had been relegated in 1999 and mired in mediocrity ever since. With each passing year their decisions became more desperate as panic set in. Now they were facing a battle not to drop down to the third tier. Years of supporting this club had made me an eternal pessimist. I could easily see us doing the same if we didn’t get out of this league quickly.
Thankfully, the pre-match goodwill continued after the first whistle when Forest kindly gifted us an early lead. Goalkeeper Paul Gerrard, who was the injured party when Paolo Di Canio famously stopped play at Goodison a few seasons earlier, repaid our former talisman’s generosity. His botched clearance bounced into an empty net off Matty Etherington’s backside. Then Sheringham nodded in a second before half-time to put us firmly in the festive spirit.
Sadly, it seemed Pardew’s team talk had been hijacked by The Ghost of West Ham Past. And, sure enough, from a position of complete control we crumbled under pressure. David Johnson scored twice in three minutes to bring the scores level. Ultimately it was left to Sheringham – the one man whose transfer deal had been worth the price of the paper in the fax machine – to spare our blushes. He nodded in a late winner to send the fans home happy.
By half-time on 28 December that cosy Christmas feeling had been replaced by rage. West Ham were 2-0 down to lowly Rotherham – and the vociferous away following at Millmoor had decided that time was up for Alan Scott Pardew in the Hammers’ hotseat. His team had been atrocious again. Ironically, it was defeat at this ground that had ended Glenn Roeder’s tenure 14 months earlier. Now it seemed history was on the verge of repeating itself. Another 45 minutes like that and Pards would surely be spending next weekend on the Goals on Sunday sofa.
The gaffer needed a hero. And he found one, as he had done all season, in the shape of Sheringham. The veteran striker threaded a delightful through ball to Marlon Harewood, who was hacked down by the Millers’ keeper. Sheringham didn’t hesitate to take the spot-kick, slotting it into the right corner and then signalling to the away end that the comeback was on.
He was right too. Five minutes later, the former England man nodded his way past Rotherham’s centre-half, who dragged Teddy to the deck. This time it was Harewood who stood tall, smashing the ball into the roof of the net to earn a point that seemed barely possible at the break.
It was hard to be positive about the draw, despite the players’ efforts to bring us back from the brink. Rotherham were rooted to the bottom of the table with just two wins all season. On paper this should have been a straightforward three points. But nothing about this year was proving straightforward.
There were 22 games left that would decide our fate in this division. And I was dreading every single one of them.
Sid has a new book out: ‘Highs, Lows and Di Canios: The Fans’ Guide to West Ham United in the 90s’. Visit www.thewesthamway.com, or head into the official West Ham store for a rollercoaster ride through one of the most turbulent decades in Claret & Blue history.
*The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of West Ham United.
