To celebrate Robert Snodgrass becoming West Ham United’s first Scotland international in ten years, we have picked the all-time Claret and Blue Tartan Army XI – but do you agree with our selections?
Snoddy became just the SIXTH Hammer to represent the Scots in a senior international match when he pulled on the famous dark blue shirt in Wednesday’s 1-1 friendly draw with Canada.
But the winger is far from the first Scot to have worn West Ham’s famous Claret and Blue…
1. Bobby Ferguson
West Ham have employed a succession of Scottish goalkeepers, despite their unfair reputation for making mistakes, with 1962 Hammer of the Year Lawrie Leslie and Tom McAlister, who made 100 appearances in the mid-1980s, among those to pull on a green shirt.
Ferguson was the Hammers’ No1 for much of the 1970s, making 277 appearances, but the unfortunate Ardrossan-born stopper missed both the 1975 FA Cup final and 1976 European Cup Winners’ Cup final, as English youngster Mervyn Day was preferred.
2. Ray Stewart
The all-time Penalty King scored an amazing 78 penalties in 434 appearances for the Hammers between 1979 and 1991, while his nickname Tonka alluded to his indestructible physical makeup.
The world’s most-expensive teenager when he signed from Dundee United, right-back Stewart is the only non-Englishman to have won the FA Cup in Claret and Blue, doing so in 1980.
3. Neil Orr
Greenock-born Orr is arguably the most understated Boy of ’86, despite the fact he started 33 of West Ham’s First Division matches in that historic season.
A versatile midfielder or defender, Orr provided the guile alongside the flair of Alan Devonshire, Mark Ward and Alan Dickens. Despite his undoubted quality, Orr was never capped by Scotland.
4. James McCrae
Born in the wonderfully-named Bridge of Weir in 1894, McCrae’s early career was affected by the First World War, during which he appeared as a guest player for the Hammers.
McCrae remained in east London following the end of the war, signing permanently in June 1919 and lining up in defence for the Club’s first-ever Football League match against Lincoln City on 30 August of the same year.
5. Christian Dailly
He of ‘curly-hair’ fame was capped 67 times by Scotland between 1997 and 2008, appearing at the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, to be his country’s sixth most-capped player.
A tall defender, Dailly became a cult hero on joining West Ham from Blackburn Rovers in 2001, going on to make 191 appearances over the next six seasons, including the 2004 and 2005 Play-Off finals.
6. Don Hutchison
A midfielder, Hutchison was capped 26 times, scoring the most notable of his six goals with the winner against England at Wembley in a UEFA Euro 2000 play-off match in November 1999.
7. Billy Grassam
Billy Grassam’s name will be a mystery to most Hammers fans, but the diminutive inside-right was a star of his time. Not only did Grassam line up in West Ham United’s first-ever fixture against Gravesend United on 1 September 1900, but he scored four goals in it as the Hammers won 7-0!
In 83 appearances, Grassam scored 44 goals. Then, after two years with Manchester United, he returned to east London in 1905 and netted another 24 in 96 further games.
8. Nigel Quashie
The mystery of ‘Whatever happened to Nigel Quashie?’ is one which continues to baffle West Ham supporters, a decade after the midfielder made his eighth and final appearance in Claret and Blue.
A teenage prodigy with Queens Park Rangers, Southwark-born Quashie played more than 300 games for QPR, Nottingham Forest, Portsmouth, Southampton and West Bromwich Albion before joining the relegation-threatened Hammers in January 2007. Six weeks later, he was injured in the dramatic 4-3 Premier League defeat by Tottenham, and was never seen again.
9. Archibald Macauley
Born in Falkirk, Macauley spent four seasons with Rangers, becoming a regular as a teenager and winning the Scottish Cup and League Championship, before joining the Hammers in 1937 for £6,000.
An wing half, Macauley was part of the 1940 Football League War Cup-winning side at Wembley, and he won the Football League Championship with Arsenal eight years later.
10. Frank McAvennie
Blond-haired McAvennie arrived as an attacking midfielder from St Mirren in the summer of 1985, but an injury suffered by striker Paul Goddard saw the relative unknown move up front.
McAvennie responded by forging a prolific partnership with Tony Cottee which fired the Hammers to a record-high third-place First Division finish. His reward was a trip with Scotland to the 1986 FIFA World Cup finals in Mexico.
11. John Dick
Last, but certainly not least, comes John Dick – West Ham’s first senior Scotland international when he was handed his debut against England at Wembley in 1959.
Amazingly, despite netting an incredible 177 goals in 367 appearances in Claret and Blue, including 77 First Division goals in just four seasons, Govan-born Dick was never capped by his country again.
