West Ham United continue preparations for the 2021/22 campaign with a pre-season double-header on Tuesday evening.
The Hammers will send squads to both Leyton Orient and Northampton Town, enabling players to maximise their minutes as they build up match fitness ahead of what promises to be a busy season ahead.
Both opponents will kick-off the new season in EFL League Two, with Orient having finished eleventh last term, while Northampton were relegated after finishing 22nd in League One in May.
The Irons, who of course finished sixth in the Premier League last season to qualify for the UEFA Europa League group stage, kicked-off their pre-season schedule with a 2-2 draw at Scottish Premiership side Dundee on Friday afternoon. Young defender Jamal Baptiste and forward Jarrod Bowen scored the goals for David Moyes' side.
Both matches kick-off at 7pm on Tuesday. Home supporters will be present at both The Breyer Group Stadium and Sixfields Stadium, with capacities at both reduced due to COVID-19 restrictions.
West Ham United supporters can watch the matches via live streams being hosted on the home clubs' respective websites, priced at £5 for each. Click here to watch the Orient game, and here to watch the Northampton fixture.
We will have live coverage, highlights and reaction from both matches on whufc.com, on the Official App and across our social media channels.
Team news
West Ham United will split their squad in half, with a mixture of senior players and promising youngsters set to appear in both matches.
Manager David Moyes will take the team at Leyton Orient, while members of his coaching staff will oversee matters at Northampton Town.
Player-wise, the Irons will have the same group of players available who featured at Dundee as the Hammers' five UEFA Euro 2020 representatives - Łukasz Fabiański, Tomáš Souček, Vladimír Coufal, Andriy Yarmolenko and Declan Rice - have yet to return to Rush Green and will not be involved.
That means supporters can expect to see the likes of Darren Randolph, Ryan Fredericks, Ben Johnson, Angelo Ogbonna, Issa Diop, Craig Dawson, Aaron Cresswell, Mark Noble, Manuel Lanzini, Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio in action, alongside Friday goalscorer Jamal Baptiste, young forward Mipo Odubeko and new Academy recruit Pierre Ekwah.
The opposition – Leyton Orient
Based less than two miles north of London Stadium at The Breyer Group Stadium, Leyton Orient are West Ham United's nearest professional neighbours.
The O's were originally founded as a cricket club in 1881 and started playing football seven years later.
The east Londoners have spent the majority of their existence as a Football League club in the lower two divisions, but did spend the 1962/63 season in the top-flight, defeating West Ham 2-0 at home in September 1962, but finished bottom of the table and were relegated.
Orient spent the entire 1970s in the Second Division and reached the FA Cup semi-finals in 1978, but have not been higher than the third tier since being relegated in 1982.
The O's were relegated out of the Football League in 2017, ending 112 straight seasons in the top four divisions, but bounced back under the management of the late Justin Edinburgh two years later.
Orient finished last season eleventh in League Two, but will hope to improve on that showing under new manager Kenny Jackett, who was appointed in May after four seasons with Portsmouth.
Unsurprisingly, the two clubs have developed many links down the years.
Among those who have worn the Claret and Blue and red and white were FA Cup winners Pat Holland, Mervyn Day, Billy Jennings, Tommy Taylor and Alvin Martin, along with 1965 European Cup Winners’ Cup final two-goal hero Alan Sealey, who began his career with Orient in 1960, and 1958 Second Division title winner Phil Woosnam.
Taylor, who won the FA Cup in 1975, was signed from Orient in 1970, having captained them to promotion to the Second Division, returned their as a player in 1979, and then managed the O’s between 1996-2001.
Current West Ham first-team coach Kevin Nolan featured 14 times for the O’s during the 2015/16 – the final professional appearances of his playing career, and was player-manager for four months in early 2016.
Manager-wise, Taylor and Nolan are not the only former Hammers to take the reins at Brisbane Road, as Holland, Paul Brush, Peter Eustace, Dave Sexton, George Petchey and Jimmy Bloomfield have also played for West Ham and later managed Orient.
Former West Ham Academy winger Dan Kemp joined the O's in January 2021 and scored five goals in 24 League Two appearances last season.
Previous meetings v Leyton Orient
West Ham United and Leyton Orient have met 28 times in all competitions, but have not shared the same division since the 1980/81 season, when both were in the second tier.
Perhaps also unsurprisingly, West Ham have enjoyed the lion’s share of success in those 28 meetings, winning 19 and losing just five, with four draws.
The East London derby, as it is known, was last contested in January 1987, when John Lyall’s side were held 1-1 at Brisbane Road in the FA Cup third round, before winning the replay 4-1 at the Boleyn Ground.
More famously, the pair met in the same competition at the fourth-round stage in January 1964. Again, the initial tie ended 1-1 in Leyton, before West Ham won the replay 3-0 on home turf. Ron Greenwood’s men, of course, would go on to lift the trophy for the first time at Wembley four months later.
And Orient were also beaten, 3-2 at Brisbane Road in the fourth round, as Lyall’s side continued their successful quest to win the FA Cup for a third time in 1980.
The most-recent non-competitive fixture between the near neighbours was played at Brisbane Road in July 2007, when Dean Ashton hit the net in a 1-1 draw.
The opposition – Northampton Town
Founded in 1897, Northampton Town have also spent the vast majority of their existence in the Football League in the lowest two divisions.
And like Leyton Orient, the Cobblers - the nickname refers to the town's tradition for shoemaking - have also enjoyed just one single season in the top flight, doing so in 1965/66. Also like Orient, Northampton won their home game against West Ham United, 2-1 in October 1985.
Historically, Northampton have been managed by a number of individuals who have gone on to enjoy successful coaching careers, including future Arsenal boss Herbert Chapman and recent Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder.
Player-wise, future Liverpool and England defender Phil Neal was born locally and spent six seasons with Northampton between 1968-74 before going on to win eight Division One titles, four European Cups and 50 England caps.
Amazingly, Northampton were promoted from Division Four to Division One in five seasons between 1960/61 and 1964/65, then relegated three times in four years back to the fourth tier by 1969/70.
Northampton have not returned to the top two tiers since then, but have won titles and trophies in the meantime, winning the fourth tier title in 1987 and 2016 and winning promotion to the third tier on three other occasions, most recently in 2020. Of course that also means they have been relegated on five occasions, including last season.
There are a number of links between the two clubs historically, with former West Ham players Jack Tresadern and Syd Puddefoot both having managed the Cobblers.
The Cobblers are currently managed by former Academy coach Jon Brady, who replaced Keith Curle on a temporary basis in February this year before his appointment was made permanent in May.
Previous meetings v Northampton Town
West Ham United and Northampton Town met regularly in the Southern League between 1901 and 1915.
The Hammers were then elected to the Football League in 1919, with the Cobblers following a year later. However, the Irons were in Division Two and Northampton joined the newly created Division Three South, so the clubs did not meet again in a competitive fixture until the Cobblers were promoted to Division One in 1965.
As mentioned above, Northampton won their home game 2-1 at the County Ground, which they shared with Northamptonshire County Cricket Club between 1897 and 1994, defeating a West Ham team that included Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters. Hurst was on target in the return fixture at the Boleyn Ground in January 1966, which ended in a 1-1 draw.
Northampton's relegation that season meant those were the only league meetings between the two. However, the clubs met in the Football League Cup in September 1998, when the Cobblers pulled off a shock 2-1 aggregate win over the Irons courtesy of two Chris Freestone goals in the first leg at Sixfields Stadium.
West Ham's U21s visited Sixfields in the Football League Trophy in October 2016, when Djair Parfitt-Williams' goal helped the Hammers secure a 1-1 group-stage draw. West Ham won the penalty shootout that followed 3-2.
First team-wise, the Irons' most recent meeting with the Cobblers was in May 2007, when Alan Curbishley took his squad to Sixfields for Andy Woodman's Testimonial. Kepa Blanco (two), Marlon Harewood and Carlton Cole got the goals in a 4-1 win for the visitors, who had completed a Great Escape from Premier League relegation the previous weekend.